EYEAFRICA TV: Geneva, Switzerland: The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday announced a method to sterilize mosquitoes, which can effectively control mosquito-borne diseases.
According to an experiment jointly conducted by WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency, male mosquitoes can be sterilized by radiation. The mosquitoes that underwent such procedures are not radioactive, so they will not pollute the surrounding environment after returning to nature. This measure can control the population of mosquitoes, and through long-term operations, may even eliminate specific mosquito populations.
According to WHO data, mosquitoes are one of the most dangerous species to humans. They transit diseases and viruses including Dengue fever, malaria and Zika virus, and existing measures are not sufficient to control the spread of these diseases. WHO is planning to promote this mosquito sterilization technique on a global scale.
“When we had Zika, Dengue, and Chikungunya simultaneously, we had a slight drop in cases in 2017 and 2018, but this year, Dengue cases have risen sharply, and there are several factors to it. First of all, the mosquito population has been extremely high in many places. And today this mosquito is present in over 130 countries, putting around four billion people at risk of any of these out-borne viruses. So this is the situation, we are looking for better tools to manage Dengue, and the sterilizing technique is one of them,” said Raman Velayudhan, coordinator from WHO’s Department of Neglected Tropical Diseases.
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