What in the World
It’s an effort to combat disease-carrying bugs
Coverage by Political Leaning
See how different sides of the spectrum reported this story
Notable Quotes
"She explains why it’s important to engage with local communities about the issue."
— Dorcas Wangira , Activist
"These maggots actually feed on the tissue in the wound ... and they can destroy that tissue very substantially."
— Dr. William Schaffner , Academic
"It can cause deadly wounds in animals."
— Dr. Todd Ellerin , Academic
"There are no antibiotics or medications that one can get to attack the larvae, so often the treatment really is surgical."
— Dr. Marcus Pereira , Academic
"As big of a problem that mosquitoes and mosquito-borne diseases are, we can all do our part to fight them."
— Ryan Carney , Academic
"It's actually the mosquito that's the deadliest animal on the planet, responsible for about 700 million infections each year and nearly one million deaths."
— Ryan Carney , Academic
"The only really acute way to control these diseases, such as West Nile, Zika, are actually through some of these insecticide sprays."
— Jeff Riffell , Academic
"If you spray where these swarms are occurring, you actually really decrease, or decimate, the mosquito populations in these kind of urban areas."
— Jeff Riffell , Academic
Key People
Former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Dorcas Wangira is a global health reporter.
Medical director of the transplant infectious diseases program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
Chief of infectious diseases at South Shore Health in Massachusetts.
A professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Professor of biology in the Department of Neuroscience and Biology at the University of Washington.
Assistant professor of biological sciences and quantitative and computational biology at the University of Southern California.
Ryan Carney is an assistant professor at the University of South Florida's Department of Integrative Biology.
Tags
All Coverage
It’s an effort to combat disease-carrying bugs
The New World screwworm fly, a flesh-eating parasite, has been detected in south Texas, posing a threat to the U.S. cattle industry for the first time in over 50 years.
Cases of the New World screwworm, a flesh-eating parasitic infection, have been confirmed near the U.S. border, raising concerns about its potential spread.
Chagas disease, transmitted by 'kissing bugs,' is now considered endemic in the U.S., with cases rising in several states.
Researchers are using citizen science and artificial intelligence to track mosquitoes that may carry diseases like malaria and Zika.
Experts discuss the benefits and drawbacks of using pesticides to control mosquito populations that spread diseases.
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