A massive mosquito factory aims to protect 140 million people from dengue fever in Brazil in the coming years.
Wolbito's factory will be able to protect approximately 7 million people in Brazil every 6 months.
Reuters - The world's largest biofactory for breeding mosquitoes infected with the Wolbachia bacteria, a method researchers use to combat dengue fever, hopes to protect approximately 140 million people from the disease in Brazil in the coming years, according to the company responsible for the project.
The Wolbito do Brasil factory, supported and used exclusively by the Ministry of Health, was inaugurated in the city of Curitiba on July 19th. A joint venture between the World Mosquito Programme, the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, and the Paraná Institute of Molecular Biology, it can produce 100 million mosquito eggs per week.
"Wolbito do Brasil will be able to protect around 7 million people in Brazil every six months," said Luciano Moreira, the company's CEO, in an interview.
Dengue fever is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which infects hundreds of millions of people every year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Severe cases of dengue can be fatal, and 6.297 people died from the disease in Brazil last year, the worst year on record, according to WHO data.
The Wolbachia bacteria prevents mosquitoes from transmitting dengue fever and other diseases, such as Zika or Chikungunya. Therefore, public health authorities release laboratory-bred mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia to reproduce with local mosquito populations and transmit the bacteria that block virus transmission.
The method has already protected more than 5 million people in eight Brazilian cities since 2014, according to the Ministry of Health.
"Wolbachia only lives inside insect cells. Therefore, if an insect dies, it also dies," said Antonio Brandão, production manager at Wolbito do Brasil, stating that he considers the method safe. "Wolbachia is present in more than 60% of insects in nature and... for centuries, we have never had any interaction with humans."
Cars loaded with infected mosquitoes will drive through dengue fever hotspots and release the insects at the push of a button.
"The choice of area within the municipality is based on dengue cases, so the neighborhoods with the highest incidence of people who have contracted dengue are the priority neighborhoods," said Tamila Kleine, regional operations coordinator for Wolbito do Brasil.
