Tuesday, February 16, 2016

WHO supports countries that use technology to contain advancing zika – Globo.com

The World Health Organization (WHO) defended on Tuesday (16) that countries fighting the virus zika like Brazil must seek new ways to stop the mosquito Aedes aegypti. Innovative techniques cited by WHO are already being developed and tested in Brazil, and are being debated by scientists and health authorities around the world.

One of the tests that the WHO declared it supports is releasing mosquitoes GM in nature. The WHO also said to be in favor of tests with a bacterium that prevents mosquitoes from reaching adulthood and cited also the sterilization of males by nuclear irradiation as another means of combat.

Brazil, all the techniques are already being tested. The branch of a British laboratory, in Piracicaba, in the interior of São Paulo, has had success with one of them. Scientists released 23 million genetically modified mosquitoes.

The males breed and produce offspring that die before reaching adulthood, thus reducing the total population. The analyzes in the laboratory have shown that the region where the transgenic mosquitoes were released, there was a 82% reduction in larvae of common mosquito.

But according to WHO, the new techniques do not eliminate the importance of traditional methods to combat Aedes aegypti. That at this point, everyone should already know:. The elimination of mosquito breeding spots and the use of pesticides

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