Global Courant 2023-04-20 05:33:45
The deputy presented a project to authorize the “production and release” of specimens of the genus Aedes aegypti with these characteristics. In this way, it seeks to reduce the population of insects that transmit the virus in a “natural way”.
With more than 50,000 cases, 42 deaths and circulation in almost the entire country, dengue is one of the health concerns of the moment. Along these lines, a project was presented in the Chamber of Deputies to control the advance of the mosquito that transmits the virus through an innovative technique: the “production and release” of sterile male specimens.
“We are going through a complex epidemiological situation,” stated the national deputy Julio Cobos (radical of Together for Change), promoter of the initiative. “We understand that, to the known prevention and control measures, we can add another strategy to combat the plague. In this sense, we want to bring from Mendoza a technique similar to the one we use to combat the plague of the Mediterranean fly”, he explained and surprised with the initiative.
Cobos tied his proposal to a precedent that he said was used in his provincial management under the name of “Sterile Insect Technique (TIE).”
And he elaborated: “It is based on a method of birth control of the insect/pest to combat, and it allows us to protect agricultural production and be able to comply with the standards to export to the world. This is done from the production of insects that they are bred and sterilized in a massive way and then released into the environment: these sterilized males, when they unite with the wild females, interrupt the biological cycle of the insect, reducing the wild population of the pest)”.
“The same can be done with the mosquito responsible for the transmission of dengue, zika and chikungunya,” he added.
Congressman Julio Cobos proposed producing sterile Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to combat the spread of dengue. Photo Agustin Marcarian / Reuters
This application technique takes several years of research. “In 2019, the Mendoza Institute of Agri-Food Health and Quality (ISCAMEN) signed a collaboration agreement with the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) to advance development. ISCAMEN has a long history and recognition in development; in addition It has the infrastructure and specialized human resources necessary for the production of sterile male mosquitoes to be released in the areas affected by the disease,” Cobos said in his project.
Failure in Deputies of a left-wing project to declare a health emergency due to dengue
Meanwhile, in the Chamber of Deputies, this Wednesday, a project presented by a legislator from the Left Front to declare a national health emergency failed.
In the middle of the special session called to discuss the modification of the money laundering law, the deputy Alejandro Vilca (Left Front – Jujuy) asked that a project to declare “the national health emergency due to dengue” to be dealt with on tables root of the number of cases. “The situation is very serious. It should be the first point to be discussed in this session,” Vilca justified.
The treatment of the project, however, was rejected both by deputies from the Frente de Todos and Juntos por el Cambio. After the refusal, the deputy Nicolás Del Caño expressed his indignation. “Nobody wants to fight dengue? What do they have to say? Are they against declaring an emergency? People are dying, from the poorest sectors, the humblest, and some here laugh. It’s a shame,” he stated.
The dengue infection curve, well into the fall, continues to rise. Until this Wednesday, 42 deaths and more than 50,000 infected have been recorded. The current number of cases is less than 10,000 from the mark reached 3 years ago, when the record marked 59,277. And it is estimated that there is still a month of strong epidemiological risk left. Then towards the end of May the outbreak would start to subside.
DS
