Production should only start in 2025Disclosure
Published 05/06/2024 07:55
Minas Gerais opened a week ago a biofactory of modified mosquitoes, characterized by carrying the Wolbachia bacteria (Wolbitos), which is capable of blocking the transmission of arboviruses from vectors to humans, mainly dengue. Production, however, should only begin in 2025.
The resources for the construction of the building in Belo Horizonte came from the agreement to repair the damage caused by the collapse of the mining company Vale’s dam, in Brumadinho, in January 2019. The tragedy took the lives of 272 people. Therefore, in the first phase of the new project, mosquitoes Aedes aegypti with the bacteria will be released in the city of Brumadinho and in 21 other municipalities in the Paraopeba River Basin.
According to the Ministry of Health, Vale will also pay for the assembly of equipment and the cost of operations for five years. The construction of the building received an investment of approximately R$20 million, and the operation stage foresees another R$57 million, according to the Minas Gerais government.
The idea is that, in the future, the factory will be able to meet the demand for Wolbitos in all municipalities in Minas Gerais. “The factory will certainly reach a capacity of 60 million mosquitoes per month. Over time, we will have much better numbers here in Minas regarding dengue fever”, stated governor Romeu Zema (Novo). The State has already recorded more than 1.3 million probable cases and confirmed 324 deaths from the disease this year. “It’s a factory that will revolutionize the future of Minas.”
Result
As shown by Estadão, at the end of last year, in cities where the method has been used, researchers achieved reductions of up to 90% in the incidence of dengue. They have also had positive results for other diseases caused by mosquitoes, such as Zika and chikungunya.
In Brazil, the Australian method has been conducted by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), with funding from the Ministry of Health in partnership with local governments, since 2014. Until last year, the World Mosquito Program (WPM), holder of the patent for the methodology, used, on a temporary basis, the Fiocruz building, in Rio, and in a space provided by the city of Belo Horizonte to produce Wolbitos.
During the inauguration, the Secretary of Health and Environmental Surveillance at the Ministry of Health, Ethel Maciel, said that “this is the first biofactory other than the one in Rio de Janeiro”, but the ministry has plans to expand to other states. According to her, there are plans to build similar structures in Paraná and Ceará.
In February, Ethel reported that the department had purchased all of Fiocruz’s mosquito production for this year. The Wolbachia method reached six new cities: Natal (RN), Uberlândia (MG), Presidente Prudente (SP), Londrina (PR), Foz do Iguaçu (PR) and Joinville (SC). Previously, it was present in five others: Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Niterói (RJ), Campo Grande (MS), Belo Horizonte (MG) and Petrolina (PE).
