For decades, preventing dengue fever in Honduras has meant teaching people to fear mosquitoes and avoid their bites. Now, Hondurans are being educated about a potentially more effective way to control the disease — and it goes against everything they’ve learned. Which explains why a dozen people cheered last month…
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — For decades, preventing dengue fever in Honduras has meant teaching people to fear mosquitoes and avoid their bites. Now, Hondurans are being educated about a potentially more
EL PAÍS accompanies Doctors Without Borders on a pilot project in Honduras that has released the ‘Aedes aegypti’ variety with Wolbachia bacteria to combat the disease at a time of record cases in America
Preventing dengue fever has long meant teaching people to fear mosquitoes and avoid their bites. Now scientists are promoting a potentially more effective way to control the disease — with the help of mosquitoes. These aren’t just any insects: Mosquitoes are bred in laboratories to carry bacteria that halt the spread of dengue. This strategy pioneered by the World Mosquito Program over the past decade recently launched its latest project in Honduras. Over the next six months, close to 9 million of the specially bred mosquitoes will be released in Tegucigalpa, where residents are learning to trust the counterintuitive strategy.
Preventing dengue fever has long meant teaching people to fear mosquitoes and avoid their bites. Now scientists are promoting a potentially more effective way to control the disease — with the help of mosquitoes. These aren’t just any insects: Mosquitoes are bred in laboratories to carry bacteria that halt the spread of dengue. This strategy pioneered by the World Mosquito Program over the past decade recently launched its latest project in Honduras. Over the next six months, close to 9 million of the specially bred mosquitoes will be released in Tegucigalpa, where residents are learning to trust the counterintuitive strategy.