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| UAV Drones To Help Fight The Zika Virus By Spreading Sterile Mosquitoes. |
Early this year, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has conducted successful tests using UAV drones to drop hundreds of thousands of sterile mosquitoes into parts of Brazil which have been drastically ravaged by the Zika virus as the case may be.
One Might Say, Dropping More Mosquitoes? Are They Mad?
well, at first it sounds crazy and stupid, right? I know. The project is, however, a long-running collaboration between the IAEA, The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and Swiss-American non-profit, WeRobotics. This method which is as explained in more detail below is, in fact, a proven way of reducing mosquito populations in a given area at large and therefore slowing the spread of dangerous viruses, such as the Zika virus.
So, Someone Might Ask, What Is The Zika Virus Again? It Is Been A Few Years Since I Last Heard About It As A Whole.
The Zika virus is simply a kind of off the international news radar as of late but was a huge deal in the year 2015-2016. It is eventually spread through infected Aedes species mosquito.
However, while not particularly deadly – The Zika virus does have the particularly scary ability to pass from pregnant mothers to fetuses. The Zika virus can cause babies to be born with major birth defects including severe brain damage and deformed skulls.
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| (A Child Affected With The Zika Virus) UAV Drones To Help Fight The Zika Virus By Spreading Sterile Mosquitoes |
During the peak of the Zika virus epidemic, South America was one of the regions which was hit the hardest. Especially in Brazil in particular, thousands of babies were born with defects. Worldwide since 2015 there have been more than 225,000 confirmed cases and another 553,000 suspected cases of Zika Virus.
You Might Be Wondering, How Does This UAV Drone Scheme Work?
scientists at The IEAEA firstly expose hundreds of thousands of male mosquitoes to radiation in a lab which sterilizes them. They then carefully collected the mosquitoes and put them in a compartment within a UAV drone. Basically, to protect the insects and prevent them from losing a leg or wing, they are chilled to 4-8 degrees, putting them into a sleep-like state that keeps them stationary in the course of transit. So each UAV drone can treat 20 hectares of area in five minutes with weigh less than 10 kilograms and each UAV drone can equally carry about 50,000 sterile mosquitoes per flight. They release the mosquitoes over a wide area at predetermined intervals as they wish.
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| (Aedes Mosquito) UAV Drones To Help Fight The Zika Virus By Spreading Sterile Mosquitoes |
The sterile males who then mate with the females mosquitoes do not produce any offspring at all. As such, after a certain period of time, the mosquito population in a given area can dramatically drop. At around $12,000 USD per UAV drone, this initiative is a cost-effective way for governments at large to take on a serious problem that has indeed caused significant pain and suffering in many parts of the planet earth today.
So let us hope in speculation that this scheme, as well as other initiatives which might come up, and be completely successful and ridding the world of this terrible illness aware from we human as a whole.
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