The U.N. nuclear-monitoring agency on Wednesday announced plans to facilitate the transfer of a nuclear technique to Brazil to help the country's fight with the Zika virus by suppressing the mosquito populations that transmit the disease. A cobalt-60 gamma cell irradiator is expected to be transferred to the Brazilian sterile insect technique (SIT) Moscamed center, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced at an expert meeting in Brasilia. The irradiator, in a few months, could help increase the production of sterile male mosquitoes to be released in selected areas, so they can mate with wild females who will not produce offspring, effectively suppressing the insect population over time, experts said, agreeing that SIT was an efficient, safe, environmentally neutral, and sustainable method to control mosquito populations and fight diseases like Zika and dengue fever. The Brasilia meeting, organized in cooperation with Brazilian Ministry of Health, is part of the IAEA's response to the current Zika outbreak in South and Central America. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Zika an international public-health emergency earlier this month.
