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Comment by objektif | Hacker News Reader

I posted about this last year. This will soon be an issue in the US as well and only then people will start freaking out. Because dengue can mess up anyone not just the old. Time to wipe out disease carrying mosquitos!!

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Bill Gates has dozens of projects combating mosquitoes, at least one of which is intended to replace them with non-carrying mosquitoes.

That’s what happens in America when we freak out now, one of the billionaires fixes it.

In 2009, Bill Gates gave TEDTalk in which he released mosquitoes to make a point about malaria.

Read about Oxitec[1] a while ago and found their approach quite interesting!

[1]https://www.oxitec.com/

This looks promising. How effective has it been in reality?

It’s early. Studies in Brazil show up to 90% reduction (Oxitec’s numbers) and they’re just now going into their third season of testing in the Florida keys, working with the EPA. They say the results are good, and I assume they must be if the government is letting them expand the trials. I think we’ll have hard numbers soon.

I’ve been following this for years just out of curiosity. It’s a brilliant solution and a brilliant business model. Because the genetic alteration kills the mosquitoes, you have to keep buying them from the company. It both makes it so that there’s seemingly little risk to the environment and subscription revenue.

That’s great. If we can drive disease carrying ones to extinction why do we need to keep buying this?

You probably can't drive them to extinction this way. The introduced mosquitoes only help within a small range (~400m I think) of where they put the little devices they come from, because that particular mosquito doesn't travel far from where it's born. And even within that range, a 95% reduction is great, but the year you stop, that 5% will just start doing whatever they did before and a couple years later you'll be back to where you were beforehand.Insect populations grow exponentially.

what do you suggest to stock up, just in case?

Not sure if you are making fun or not but best thing to do would be to ask FDA to take the vaccine approval/development seriously.

I'm interested in being prepared for potential health challenges, particularly mosquito-borne diseases like dengue fever. It seems to be a concern in some areas, and I believe knowing how to identify and manage potential symptoms can be very helpful. I'd like to learn about stocking a minimal amount of essential supplies, like mosquito repellent, to help prevent bites in the first place

I'm in Europe so not very familiar with tropical diseases beside the annoying mosquitoes

If you get yourself a supply of Permethrin and some mosquito nets, you will be miles ahead of most people.

Permethrin is great stuff, the mosquito lands on permethrin treated cloth, the mosquito falls down dead. It is something to see. You can treat your clothes with it and spray it on your walls and ceilings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permethrin

Yes but unfortunately dengue carrying mosquitos bite during the day and they are very sneaky. They go for the feet, ankle etc..

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