A Brazilian startup is fighting dengue fever with drones – MIT Technology Review

The whole world is suffering from dengue fever infection. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 100 to 400 million people are infected with dengue fever every year, which is an eight-fold increase compared to 20 years ago. The reason dengue fever is spreading so quickly is because climate warming has allowed mosquitoes to breed in more areas.

In this situation, a startup called Birdview, based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, one of the countries hit hardest by dengue fever, has set out to prevent the spread of dengue fever by releasing sterile male mosquitoes using drones.

Birdview is a company that specializes in using drones to release pest-fighting insects into every corner of a crop field, allowing farmers to use less pesticides.

However, in 2021, engineer and founder Ricardo Machado announced his support for scientists working to prevent diseases such as dengue fever, yellow fever, chikungunya fever, and Zika fever, which are transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, which lay their eggs on the surface of stagnant water. While listening to the story, a new idea came to mind.

Machado heard that scientists had released sterile male mosquitoes into areas with high rates of mosquito-borne diseases and made them mate with females. This was a measure to reduce the mosquito population by suppressing female fertility and ultimately reduce the occurrence of mosquito-borne diseases.