Newscasts - Brazil city deploys modified mosquitos to fight dengue surge

Precigen

28/02/2024 20:47

Click the following link to watch video: https://share.newscasts.refinitiv.com/link?entryId=1_6wi7tl8s&referenceId=tag:reuters.com,2024:newsml_RW415828022024RP1_K15&pageId=Newscasts
Source: 'Reuters - General news videos'

Description: A British biotechnology company is betting on a solution to
Brazil's surging dengue cases, involving the release of genetically modified
mosquitoes to reduce the viral infection's spread. Olivia Zollino has more.
Short Link: https://refini.tv/3wsfN3u

Video Transcript:

As Brazil confronts a massive dengue outbreak, the city of Suzano hopes part
of the solution is inside these boxes. Fuelled by a hot rainy season, more
than 973,000 likely dengue cases have been detected in Brazil so far this
year. The boxes contain a version of the male Aedes aegypti mosquito developed
by British biotechnology company Oxitec. The modified mosquitoes carry a gene
that kills female offspring before they reach maturity. Only female mosquitoes
bite and transmit diseases. The modified mosquitoes stay inside the box for
about 10 days before coming out, says Oxitec's Natalia Ferreira.

When we release the Aedes do bem in a certain neighbourhood and compare the
mosquito population with that of a neighbourhood where it was not used, we
always have more than 90% suppression of the population. In other words, the
treated neighbourhood has 90% fewer mosquitoes than the neighbourhood where
there was no release.

Suzano is among the cities using the solution after declaring a state of
emergency earlier this month. The city's mayor said he hopes the next
measurement will show a reduction in cases by 20% so the emergency can be
lifted. According to Brazil’s health ministry, 195 people died because of
the disease, while hundreds of cases remain under investigation