UN Nuclear Agency Suggests Radiation Use to Fight ’Zika’ Mosquitoes

Local Editor

The UN's nuclear agency announced on Tuesday that for the goal of preventing the further spread of the dangerous mosquito-borne Zika virus in Brazil, male insects might be exposed to X- or Gamma rays to irradiate them.

The International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] said the so-called Sterile Insect Technology [SIT] can help tackle the outbreak which has been declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization [WHO].

Relatively, IAEA experts are set to meet with Brazilian officials on February16. Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador are among other states that have also requested the technology from the UN atomic agency.

In the context, the agency's Deputy Director General Aldo Malavasi told reporters on Tuesday: "If Brazil released a huge number of sterile males, it would take a few months to reduce the population," adding that other methods of fighting the dangerous insects should not be off the table.

The method involves exposing laboratory-bred male mosquitoes to nuclear radiation before their release into the wild to mate with the females. Mosquito eggs from such copulation never hatch, helping reduce populations of the insect.

SIT was tested in several countries. According to the agency's insect pest control laboratory, in Italy it helped reduce mosquito populations by around 80 percent in several months; in China mosquitoes have been defeated 100 percent.

Cases of infants born with brain abnormalities with suspected link to Zika have been registered in over 20 Latin American countries, as well as in the US, starting from late December last year. Nearly 4,000 babies have been born with a congenital condition associated with incomplete brain development in Brazil only.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team