2018 | Argentina | Micaela Itatí Linera, Emiliano Aquino

“Biological control of they Aedes aegypti”. The aquatic environments of San Roque provide an ecofriendly answer to health problems in the area.

Water issue adressed: Too much
Aquatic environments of San Roque, Corrientes, Argentina.

The World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO / WHO) had expressed the importance of adopting a series of measures to help prevent Aedes aegypti-borne diseases, constituting a public health problem in our country and registering dengue outbreaks in 15 jurisdictions as from August to September 2016, being the worst epidemic in history.
The situation demands the urgent need to seek appropriate measures to find new control methods that do not cause environmental problems. Therefore, it was decided to locate biocontrol agents to fight for the important population vector control in their aquatic phase.
In addition, the predatory capacity of Hoplerythrinus unitaeniatus (caballita) was proved exercising an important control of Aedes aegypti population in the home environment.

This is how I came up with the idea for this project:

We are interested in finding alternatives that do not harm the environment (aquatic ecosystems) where we live. We came up with the idea through a project that the professor presented to us about the problem of diseases transmitted by mosquitoes.

DOCUMENTATION

Biological control of they Aedes aegypti. The World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO / WHO) have shown the importance of adopting a series of measures to help prevent Aedes aegypti-borne diseases, constituting a public health problem in our country and registering dengue outbreaks in 15 jurisdictions during the months from August to September 2016, happening the worst epidemic in history. At present, there is widespread consensus among the different social actors around the idea that human health and well-being are closely linked to environmental quality. The situation demands the urgent need to seek appropriate measures to find new control methods that do not cause environmental problems. Therefore it was decided to locate biocontrol agents to fight in the population vector control in their aquatic phase. Research conducted confirms the importance of water bodies (lakes, esturaies and swamps in this case) found in Mesopotamia, Argentina in the seek of ecological responses to community problems. As a result of this research, it has appeared for the first time the presence of Aedes aegypti in the town of San Roque (Corrientes) and, therefore, it has revealed the epidemiological risk for transmission of dengue and other diseases whose vector is the species mentioned, providing valuable tools for decision-making in the field of community health. In addition, the predatory capacity of Hoplerythrinus unitaeniatus (caballita) was proved exercising an important control of Aedes aegypti population in the home environment.

AUTHORS

National organizer

Argentine Association of Sanitary Engineering and Environmental Sciences (AIDIS)

Sponsors

Xylem; AySA Ecopreneur Aerolineas Argentinas

Other Author

CONTACT WATERTANK

Ania Andersch

Programme manager ania.andersch@siwi.org +46 8 121 360 59