Originally published September 12, 2023 10:29 am PDT
The United Nations’ (UN) World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday reported a “significant surge in dengue fever cases” in Bangladesh.
Authorities are calling on citizens to minimize individual exposure by using mosquito repellents and wearing long-sleeved clothes.
The outbreak has been escalating rapidly since June.
Bangladesh has seen a total of 69,483 confirmed cases and 327 related deaths between Jan 1 and Aug 7, with a case fatality rate of 0.47%.
The cases were reported from all 64 districts in the country, according to a UN press release.
“In July alone, 43,854 cases and 204 deaths were reported, accounting for 63 per cent of the total cases and 62 per cent of the deaths,” the release notes. “The sharp increase in numbers is unprecedented compared to the past five years, emphasizing the gravity of the ongoing outbreak.”
The explosion in dengue fever comes just a year and a half after the country began releasing irradiated mosquitoes into the population.
Starting from Jan 2022, Bangladesh and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)—which is funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—commenced a “four-year technical cooperation program to advance sterile mosquito technology as part of an area-wide integrated pest management program to control Aedes mosquitoes,” according to a local news source.
The IAEA recommended that Bangladesh use the “sterile insect technique” (SIT) to control the Aedes mosquitoes, which are known to transmit dengue.
SIT is a “nuclear-based” technique of insect birth control whereby “target insects are mass-reared and then sterilized by using radiation,” according to the report.
The mosquitos are then released in order to infested areas to mate with wild females.
The report claims that the mating “results in no offspring, reducing the wild insect population over time.”
However, Bangladesh’s current surge in dengue infections raises questions about the IAEA’s decision to release insects carrying the disease into human populations.
The project has an end date of June 2025, according to the IAEA.
Coincidentally, the Gates Foundation has also committed $55 million to develop vaccines for dengue.
Dr. Richard Bartlett, who serves as an Executive Board Member of Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency and as Medical Missions Director Of World Missions Alliance, argues that lab-grown mosquitoes threaten to exacerbate disease risks, endangering ecosystems and human lives.
“Fewer mosquitoes mean fewer cases of Dengue fever, death, and disability,” Dr. Bartlett told American Faith. “Fewer mosquitoes mean less Malaria. Fewer mosquitoes mean less West Nile Virus, and so on. We already have too many mosquitoes! The billions of mosquitoes grown in labs and released in Bangladesh can spread Dengue fever and more.”
The 30-year emergency room physician urged conservationists and parents to take notice.
“Conservationists should be alarmed about tampering with the natural ecosystem,” he said. “Parents should be outraged that their children might have died due to bites from lab-grown mosquitoes. This is wrong.”
