<story><title>&apos;Miraculous&apos; mosquito hack cuts dengue by 77%</title><url>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57417219</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>raynr</author><text>Me before reading the article: is it wolbachia?&lt;p&gt;Me after reading the article: it&amp;#x27;s wolbachia.&lt;p&gt;We&amp;#x27;ve been using these here in Singapore for a while now (looking at it since about 2016 [0]), and it&amp;#x27;s not like it was a secret [1], hell even the BBC has reported on wolbachia before (by the same James Gallagher!) [2], so it&amp;#x27;s a bit surprising that it is presented in this BBC article as something &amp;quot;miraculous&amp;quot; and new.&lt;p&gt;What&amp;#x27;s curious to me is that the information presented in the BBC articles is slightly different from what has been reported here in Singapore. The BBC articles say that the wolbachia infection is passed on. Our reporting has been that male mosquitos infected with wolbachia that mate with females will not produce viable eggs, but otherwise, infected females will pass the wolbachia infection on. I wonder what the details are.&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nea.gov.sg&amp;#x2F;corporate-functions&amp;#x2F;resources&amp;#x2F;research&amp;#x2F;wolbachia-aedes-mosquito-suppression-strategy&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nea.gov.sg&amp;#x2F;corporate-functions&amp;#x2F;resources&amp;#x2F;researc...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.channelnewsasia.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;singapore&amp;#x2F;wolbachia-mosquitoes-new-facility-aedes-aegypti-dengue-12145012&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.channelnewsasia.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;singapore&amp;#x2F;wolbachia-mos...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bbc.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;health-50487724&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bbc.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;health-50487724&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>&apos;Miraculous&apos; mosquito hack cuts dengue by 77%</title><url>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57417219</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>macintux</author><text>For anyone unfamiliar with dengue, among its more notorious aspects is that repeated infections over a victim’s lifetime can make its impact &lt;i&gt;worse&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Dengue_fever&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Dengue_fever&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Very happy to hear this news. Selfishly, with a warming climate the impact of the virus is likely to spread, and generally the more tropical diseases we can wipe out the better.</text></comment>