Pangasinan and Quezon City have found innovative ways to fight dengue. Dagupan City in Pangasinan province is being aided by mosquito fish (Gambusia Affinis), while Quezon City in Metro Manila is using paints that repel bugs.
Some 6,000 mosquito fish were released in stagnant canal waters around Barangay Pogo Grande in Dagupan City, the Dagupan City National High School, and schools at San Fabian, Mangaldan, and Sta. Barbara.
Dagupan City’s local government executives, school officials, Parent Teacher Associations, and volunteer groups led the releasing of mosquito fish.
The National Integrated Fisheries Technology Development Center-Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (NIFTDC-BFAR) has been propagating and distributing the mosquito fish since 2012 for dispersal at canals near schools. Director Dr. Westly Rosario shared to media how the mosquito fish can help reduce the incidence of dengue.
“Mosquito fish is classified as larvivorous fish. It thrives even inhospitable areas like shallow waters, freshwater, brackish water or even in areas that have doubled salinity,” Rosario explained in a Philippine News Agency
interview.
Dr. Rosario said the mosquito fish, first introduced in the Philippines in 1905, was used in more than 30 countries during World War II to prevent malaria.
In Metro Manila, the Quezon City public school system is using bug repellent paints for campus facilities such as entrances to buildings, handwash areas, and restrooms.
The city government received 100 gallons of Bug Off anti-insect paint from Pacific Paint (Boysen) Philippines for use in the schools.
“We are aware that damp and dark corners of school restrooms and underneath the sink of hand wash areas are breeding sites of mosquitoes, and we saw the need to address that to protect our schoolchildren,” Mayor Joy Belmonte said in a statement on September 6.
The bug repellant paint works by disrupting the bug’s nervous system when it touches the painted surface, reducing its ability to remain on walls or from flying too far away and resulting in it being “knocked down.”
Filipino inventions to address dengue have been developed locally and have even gained international recognition such as the Geneva inventors’ convention’s gold-winning dengue fever diagnostic kit Biotek-M Dengue Aqua Kit developed by Raul Destura of UP Manila’s National Institutes of Health.
Taguig Integrated School pupils also won honors in a science exhibit in Malaysia with their dengue prevention products “Euphorbia Hirta Dengue-Relieving Tea” and “Coconut Oil, Basil, and Beeswax Anti-Bacterial and Mosquito Repellant Candle”.
Eco Waste Coalition has also listed ways for barangays to fend off leptospirosis, an illness brought by infection from dirty waters.
SEND congratulations to the people of Pangasinan and Quezon City for finding ways to fight off dengue!
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