someone whose never lived anywhere where malaria / dengue / chikingunya is endemic: we need to love mosquitoes more!!! they're so important to the ecosystem you just need to get over those massive death tolls, the only disease that really needs to be cured is cancer
i know its mostly contrarianism, but the rates at which mosquitoes breed in major cities in the tropics is just as destabilising to local ecosystems lol. surprisingly, every shallow pond, sewer and garden in new delhi was not meant to breed mosquitoes.
to the people in my notes, no the problem with the vaccine against malaria is that it isn't very effective. its about 40% effective and reduces mortality only by 13%. there is basically no treatment for the viral illnesses like dengue or chikingunya. the widely agreed upon option is controlling the spread of the pathogen by its vector. these illnesses lead to about 600k deaths in 2023.
aedes aegypti the specific species that spreads about 53 pathogens is invasive outside north africa. the cutting edge of eradication efforts trialled in brazil is releasing genetically modified male mosquitoes (only the female bites) which self limits the population since their offspring can't survive to adulthood. similar trials for female sterility have been trialled with the malaria causing anopheles genus. these methods have neither the downsides of mass poisoning that insectides do, nor the widespread insectide resistance that mosquitoes eventually develop.
