2024-03-05 06:48:44
Niterói. Dengue fever is causing such problems in Rio de Janeiro that the city on the Sugarloaf Mountain has already declared a state of emergency this year. Just on the other side of Guanabara Bay, the sister city of Niterói reports only a few hundred suspected cases of the fever illness. Here the situation looks completely different.
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The fact that Niterói, with its half a million inhabitants, is getting a much better handle on the mosquito-borne dengue disease is thanks to a pilot program that relies on bacteria called Wolbachia. They can interrupt the transmission path. To do this, scientists are breeding mosquitoes that carry the dengue enemy Wolbachia. These naturally occurring bacteria fight the dengue viruses and thus reduce the mosquitoes’ ability to transmit them.
The Wolbachia strategy was developed over the past decade by the non-profit organization World Mosquito Program (WMP). It was first tested in Australia in 2011, and since then there have been projects in more than a dozen countries. In Niterói, Wolbachia bacteria started their fight against dengue in 2015.
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Yellow fever mosquito as host
After an epidemic in 2012, he asked for help, says Mayor Axel Grael. The city then teamed up with the Brazilian state research center Fiocruz, the WMP and the country’s Ministry of Health to bring the Wolbachia to Niterói. Since then, cases have declined.
Dengue fever is an illness caused by viruses. The pathogen is transmitted by mosquitoes; the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti is mainly responsible. Fever, rash, headaches and body aches are typical. Not everyone gets sick, but in severe cases the disease can be fatal, especially if a new infection occurs with another of four serotypes of the virus. There are no medications for the disease; the symptoms are treated.
Breeding sites are searched
Frequent rains and high temperatures promote the reproduction of mosquitoes – making Rio, known for its heat, particularly vulnerable to outbreaks of dengue fever. Rio has an incidence rate of 700 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, while in Niterói there are just 69 confirmed cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
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Despite the low number, Niterói, like its neighboring cities, continues to invest heavily in prevention. Every day, hundreds of city health workers are sent out to search streets, neighborhoods and wooded areas for mosquitoes and breeding sites. The helpers are particularly on the lookout for standing water in puddles or in rubbish and scrap where mosquitoes can lay their eggs.
Production of 100 million eggs per week planned
Augusto César is one of them. For more than two decades, the now 63-year-old has been traveling regularly to track down mosquitoes and where they lay their eggs. In Morro da Penha, a poorer area of the city, he combs the streets, inspects roofs and picks up trash. Even the lid of a plastic bottle can become a breeding ground for mosquito larvae if it is filled with rainwater, says César.
Dozens of municipalities in the South American country want to adopt the Wolbachia method, according to Fiocruz researcher Luciano Moreira. To this end, Brazil is expanding the breeding of mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia: the Ministry of Health announced the construction of a large facility for this purpose at the end of last year. The aim is to produce 100 million eggs per week, around ten times more than Fiocruz can currently produce. And once Wolbachia mosquitoes are released into a community, they mix with the mosquitoes there. According to the WMP, their protective shield is then transmitted from generation to generation until Wolbachia is widespread in almost the entire mosquito population.
RND/AP
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