Singapore rears moquitoes infected with Wolbachia bacteria to combat dengue

Singapore rears moquitoes infected with Wolbachia bacteria to combat dengue(reuters.com)

87 points by elfgoh 5 years ago | 35 comments

I've had dengue fever. There are a few different strains and I had one of the milder ones but it was still enough to put me in the hospital for dehydration as an otherwise healthy 20yo.

In Thai it's known as hemorrhagic fever, but unlike in English, where "hemorrhagic" is a technical term where the meaning isn't clear or is softened, in Thai it's just three simple Thai words: ไข้เลือดออก, "fever [that makes] blood [come] out". Luckily I didn't have any hemorrhaging.

andi999 5 years ago | |

As far as I was told, it is not the strains are mild or not, there are in total 4 strains, you get immune with each one you get, but each it will be worse.

fleetingmemory 5 years ago | |

> where "hemorrhagic" is a technical term where the meaning isn't clear [...] in Thai it's just three simple Thai words: ไข้เลือดออก, "fever [that makes] blood [come] out"

Well, you still had to add extra words to make the meaning clear enough.

mdturnerphys 5 years ago | | |

Fair enough. I did that because the grammars of Thai and English are quite different, in noun-modifier order, distinction between verbs and adjectives, and verb conjugation (those are just the relevant differences here). I could have said "blood-exiting fever" but that changes the word order.

TooSmugToFail 5 years ago |

Truly a fascinating method. Apparently, the most effective mosquito population control technique.

The counter-point argument offered at the end of the article/video is totally lame. I find it slightly annoying when journos feel compelled to seek contrarian positions just for the sake of form, regardless of the quality of the arguments.

accurrent 5 years ago | |

Yeah. The journalist labels Paul Tambiyah as an infectious disease professor (which he is), but also forgets to mention he is an opposition politician who will literally oppose anything for the sake of opposing.

mdturnerphys 5 years ago | |

It's an extra-lame counterpoint because male mosquitos don't bite, and they're only releasing males.

Yeri 5 years ago | | |

It's lame but it's true that during the Verily release of mosquitoes from their carts [1] in HDB estates, they had a lot of people complain how since releasing they saw more mosquitoes and were bitten more often, while the mosquito traps showed a clear decline in population.

[1] https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/nea-alphabet-...

BurningFrog 5 years ago | | |

How do they separate the genders?

mlinksva 5 years ago | |

For the counter-point to be meaningful, people would have to individually kill a lot of mosquitoes. Made me wonder, what fraction of mosquitoes are killed by humans in a city setting? I'd guess it's very small. 1/1000? Has anyone tried to measure this?

jMyles 5 years ago | | |

I too am curious, but I think it's way, way more than you're guessing. I imagine humans are the single biggest threat to mosquitoes in a city (and also the single biggest source of sustenance).

howlgarnish 5 years ago | | |

Direct kills are probably pretty marginal, but Singapore employs insecticides in prodigious quantities. It's almost eerie how eg hawker centres have no flies and outdoor gardens are almost entirely devoid of insects (whereas if you cross the border to Malaysia, both can be found in abundance).

hatsunearu 5 years ago |

"in rare cases"

My mom nearly died to Dengue fever. Twice. This shit is incredibly dangerous.

howlgarnish 5 years ago | |

Dengue is odd in that surviving an attack of one strain makes you immune to that strain, but increases the odds of getting severe complications if you catch one of the other ones. Which is which dengue vaccine is only recommended for people who have already had it once!

klipt 5 years ago | | |

One theory why that happens:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibody-dependent_enhancement

hatsunearu 5 years ago | | |

Oh shit, this explains why my mom got severely sick on her second round.

bujak300 5 years ago |

Wolbachia is one of the most fascinating and scariest life forms on earth

tines 5 years ago | |

Truly a weapon to surpass Metal Gear.

Lucasoato 5 years ago | | |

Psycho mantis?

baxtr 5 years ago | |

Why so?

bujak300 5 years ago | | |

It's a parasite that lives inside the cells of the host (if you can call it a parasite)

sohkamyung 5 years ago |

For those looking for more info on the project, here's the local agency's website on the project [1]

[1] https://www.nea.gov.sg/corporate-functions/resources/researc...

bjarneh 5 years ago |

Hard not to think about that Simpsons episode when you read about stuff like this...

muterad_murilax 5 years ago |

Please fix the typo in the title.

Wolfenstein98k 5 years ago |

Uhhh has no one in Singapore played MGSV?