With a refocus aimed at helping countries furthest behind in adoption, representatives from 18 Latin American and Caribbean countries met in Havana this week to review actions related to the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT). to start.
This scientific initiative, led by Cuba and Brazil, aims to help control populations of these vectors that transmit diseases such as dengue fever, Zika and chikungunya, for which there are no effective vaccines or medicines.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), along with other international organizations and donor countries, are supporting the project, which is based on the release of male mosquitoes sterilized by gamma rays or X-rays during copulation The Cuban news agency reports that wild females are losing their ability to reproduce.
The press report highlights that among the positive results of the implementation is the reduction in the birth rate in the mosquito population, in response to the dengue emergency in the Latin American and Caribbean region.
Doctor René Gato Armas of the Vector Control Department of the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK) told the press that the advice given to other countries for the period from 2024 to 2027 will take into account training on TIE provision of purchased, supplied and used Materials and equipment, and selection of sites for testing.
For more than a century, the sterile insect technique has been used to control insect pests, beginning with the case of the 2020 mosquito in Cuba in the city of El Cano, Havana.
The Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK) is the coordinator of the project on the island, while the Center for Technological Applications and Nuclear Development (Ceaden) is in charge of irradiating mosquitoes to sterilize them.