From News Medical Life Sciences
November 18, 2019
A new technique that sterilizes male mosquito through radiation shows promise in fighting mosquito-borne illnesses, including Zika, dengue and chikungunya. Soon, health experts plan to test the technique as part of global health efforts to control these diseases.
Dubbed as the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), the innovative technology has bee developed decades ago to target crop-eating insects in the United States. Now, UN researchers have studied the technique over the past ten years to adapt it to mosquitoes.
Working with the World Health Organization (WHO) tropical diseases program, the UN’s special programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) plans to develop a pilot program for countries that are interested in utilizing SIT on mosquitoes to test its effect on disease transmission.