Toxic fog fills Nicaraguan streets to battle disease


(Image: PA/AP Photo/Esteban Felix)


This resident of Managua, Nicaragua, and her dog may have stepped out for a breath of fresh air, but they were greeted by a fog of pesticides.


Authorities in the country are fumigating homes and areas of standing water on streets where mosquitoes can breed. The goal is to stop the annual outbreak of dengue – this year's promises to be particularly bad in Central America, where it's a leading cause of illness and death.


Targeting mosquitoes with pesticides is only partially effective. So researchers worldwide are also testing other weapons: vaccines and genetically engineered mosquitoes that mate with local insects and produce weakened offspring that die before they can reproduce.


Twitter has also been harnessed to track dengue outbreaks so that health authorities know where to concentrate resources.


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