Dear MEL Topic Readers,
What is the mosquito-borne disease Sri Lanka is using drones to fight?
Drones have been used to attack the enemy’s properties, vehicles, and soldiers
in war zones. But they are also used to help contain deadly diseases like
dengue fever. Dengue fever is a viral infection transmitted by infected Aedes
mosquitoes. Once infected, some people develop dengue symptoms, such as high
fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, nausea, rashes, and, in severe cases,
internal bleeding and death. Dengue is found in tropical and sub-tropical
climates worldwide, mostly in urban and semi-urban areas where clean, stagnant water
is found, such as puddles, buckets, and flower pots. Sri Lanka, where the virus
infected more than 77,000 people and killed 56 this year, is now taking a
preemptive strategy to reduce such mosquito-breeding bases by using drones. Once
they spot stagnant water on rooftops and yards from the air, the authority can
then advise the resident to remove it. As temperatures rise, dengue fever-carrying
mosquitoes expand their habitable zones. Since there is no universal vaccine, using
drones to preempt their habitats might be a viable strategy to protect people
from mosquito attacks.
Read the article and learn how drones could be used to prevent
mosquito-borne disease.
No comments:
Post a Comment