Rural Cambodia Uses Guppy Fish To Fight Mosquito-Transmitted Dengue

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - In the backyards of rural Cambodia, a tiny weapon is being deployed to fight dengue fever, the world’s fastest spreading tropical disease that causes debilitating flu-like symptoms and can develop into a deadly hemorrhagic fever. More than 3,000 households in Kampong Cham province, which has one of the highest dengue rates in Cambodia, have been given colorful guppy fish to breed in barrels of water that villagers keep close to their homes for cleaning and cooking. Presenting the results of a one-year pilot project, charity Malaria Consortium said the larvae-eating guppies have helped to reduce the presence of potentially dengue-carrying mosquitoes by 46 percent during the trial at a cost of a few cents per fish. “The idea was to create a sustainable solution for the villagers, with minimal costs and inconvenience for them,” John Hustedt, senior technical officer at Malaria Consortium Cambodia, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. The project is part of a growing trend to find cheap, low-tech solutions to medical problems, especially in developing countries where disease outbreaks can severely test already stretched health budgets, experts said. The Malaria Consortium hopes the Cambodian government will agree to roll out its guppy project across Cambodia, which reported almost 200,000 dengue cases between 1980 and 2008, one of the highest rates in Southeast Asia. FALLING THROUGH THE CRACKS Dengue has spread to more than ...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news