Movement in the City: Humans and Mosquitoes in the Control of Arboviruses

• In Event: Health Crises and Disease Prevention in Latin America

Abstract

The Aedes aegypi mosquito can transmit viruses of diseases such as dengue, Zika, or chikungunya. New strategies of vector control advocate using the mosquito as means to control the diseases. One of such proposals is to infect the A. aegypti with a bacterium called Wolbachia that inhibits viral replication and transmission. This strategy instrumentalizes the Aedes reproduction: mosquitoes with Wolbachia should copulate with “wild” mosquitoes, and their progeny would also have Wolbachia. However, experiments have shown that the A. aegypti does not fly long distances. Thus, for the geographical expansion of the mosquito population needed so the project can work, it is up to humans to move around the city.

This international project works together with the municipality health agents to release mosquitoes through the streets of Rio de Janeiro. Based on an ethnographic work with the Wolbachia project team and with the zoonosis control agents, this paper discusses movement in the city in this public health / global health effort to control arboviroses. How does the project data team map “territories” so that mosquitoes and humans can move? What are the strategies used to “enter the territory,” from securitized gated communities to low-income areas controlled by the traffic?

Author

• Luisa Reis Castro, HASTS - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)