"Aedes, a grayish four-propeller drone, whirred off the scruffy dirt soccer field in this Amazon village to help do what doctors cannot as climate change threatens this nation with a new era of disease.
Named after the mosquito that transmits dengue fever, it quickly rose above the excited gaggle of flip-flopped kids gathered to see it off and past their homes’ corroded metal roofs. Soon, it was nearly 400 feet high, scanning roads cutting into the jungle for new signs of disease-spreading mosquitoes.
“We can’t keep fighting dengue, malaria, all diseases with the tools we’ve had for 40 or 50 years,” said Gabriel Carrasco, the 32-year-old epidemiologist who deployed the drone. “We’re at the gateway of the consequences of climate change.”
This year, Peru suffered its worst outbreak of dengue in recorded history — a plague that some researchers say could be linked to record-breaking temperatures and precipitation driven by climate change. More than 250,000 people got infected and at least 430 died from the illness, which attacks the joints.
Dengue is one of several diseases appearing in more places and in higher numbers, overwhelming the country’s ability to predict outbreaks and contain transmission. Cases of leptospirosis — a bacterial disease spread by the infected urine of rats and other animals — have also risen in parts of Peru."
Ana Campoy, Niko Kommenda and Sarah L. Voisin report for the Washington Post December 15, 2023.
SEE ALSO:
"The U.S. Is Unprepared For The Growing Threat Of Mosquito- And Tick-Borne Viruses" (NPR)
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