By Sebastian Rocandio
CURITIBA/JOINVILLE, Brazil (Reuters) – The world’s largest biofactory for breeding mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia bacteria, a method researchers use to combat dengue, hopes to protect some 140 million people from the disease in Brazil over the coming years, the company said.
The Wolbito do Brasil plant, backed and used exclusively by Brazil’s health ministry, opened in the city of Curitiba on July 19. A joint venture between the World Mosquito Program, the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, and the Institute of Molecular Biology of Parana, 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,” Luciano Moreira, the company’s chief executive, said in an interview.
Dengue, colloquially known as break-bone fever for the debilitating pain it can cause, is spread by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that infect hundreds of millions of people each year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Severe cases of dengue can be fatal and 6,297 people died of the disease in Brazil last year, the worst year on record, according to WHO data.
Wolbachia bacteria prevent mosquitoes from transmitting dengue and other diseases like Zika or Chikungunya. So public health officials release laboratory-bred mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia to breed with local mosquito populations and pass on the bacteria blocking virus transmission.
The method has already protected more than 5 million people across eight Brazilian cities since 2014, according to Brazil’s ministry of health.
“Wolbachia only lives inside insect cells. So, if an insect dies, it dies too,” said Wolbito do Brasil production manager Antonio Brandao, saying he regards it as a safe method. “Wolbachia is present in more than 60% of insects in nature and … for centuries we never had any interactions with humans.”
As Wolbito do Brasil ramps up, cars laden with infected mosquitoes will pass through dengue hotspots and release the insects with the push of a button.
“The area chosen within the municipality is based on dengue cases, so the neighborhoods with the highest incidence of people contracting dengue are the priority neighborhoods,” said Wolbito do Brasil regional operations coordinator Tamila Kleine.
(Reporting by Sebastian Rocandio; Writing by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
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