Fighting dengue with more mosquitoes

Boquín, a project leader working with Doctors Without Borders, holding a glass jar filled with mosquitoes before their release in neighbourhoods rife with dengue, in a facility in Tegucigalpa. Doctors Without Borders is partnering with the World Mosquito Programme to release close to nine million Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes in Tegucigalpa over the next six months. —AP

FOR decades, preventing dengue fever in Honduras has meant teaching people to fear mosquitoes and avoid their bites. Now, Hondurans are being educated about a potentially more effective way to control the disease – and it goes against everything they’ve learned.

Which explains why a dozen people cheered last month as Tegucigalpa resident Hector Enriquez held a glass jar filled with mosquitoes above his head, and then freed the buzzing insects into the air.