Drones To Be Used Spreading Sterile Mosquitoes In Zika Areas

April 16, 2023 1:43 am9 commentsViews: 158

Federal government said Wednesday to be supporting the two groups that want to deploy drones to fight Zika. They will be helped with funds in the development of such drones that could be capable of dropping off Zika-fighting mosquitoes or ferry lab samples from remote regions.

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The groups now joins a batch of inventive solutions in the fight against Zika virus and also other mosquito-borne diseases which are being funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

It is learned one of the groups, Delaware-based WeRobotics, will be using the fund in the development of such drones that can carry sterile mosquitoes into hard-to-reach zones.

It is believed the sterile insects may help in reduction of the populations.

Director of USAID’s Center for Accelerating Innovation and Impact, Wendy Taylor, said until now fighting the virus meant fogging streets, but there are remote places too where such policies or efforts fail to reach.

He added, “Think about Rio — think about the favelas… It might be easier to use a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) instead of driving up and down small, winding streets with a truck.

In the new policy drones will be packed with sterile mosquitoes and dropped into mosquito hot zones.

USAID has borrowed some funds from Ebola-fighting efforts and will be diverting about $50 million to the Zika fighting policies.

Taylor also mentioned the funds can fight range of mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria and yellow fever apart from Zika virus.

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