Philippine Village Offers Money for Mosquitoes as Dengue Cases Spike

TaiwanPlus News

With dengue fever cases on the rise in the Philippines, one village in central Manila has come up with a unique way to raise awareness about this problem: offering money for mosquitoes. Many residents are eager to help but some health experts warn that there are more effective ways to prevent disease than catching mosquitoes.

Transcript

00:00Two, three, four, five, six.

00:05In this village in the Philippines,

00:06mosquitoes have a bounty on their heads.

00:09One peso for every five mosquitoes,

00:11captured and dumped into a UV light machine,

00:14which village officials call the death chamber.

00:17And they don't keep going.

00:19The project is an attempt to address a rise in cases

00:22of dengue fever across the Philippines this year.

00:25Dengue is rarely life-threatening,

00:26but can cause high fevers, rashes, and pain.

00:29And it's spread primarily by mosquito bites.

00:32This program is one of our alternative projects,

00:38an innovation approach,

00:41to encourage our fellow Filipinos

00:44to be part of the fight against dengue fever.

00:50By the beginning of February this year,

00:52the country had already seen over 20,000 dengue cases,

00:55a 40% rise from the same period last year.

00:59With many falling sick,

01:00residents of this village in central Manila

01:02are enthusiastic about catching mosquitoes.

01:05I caught a lot of them, and it helped a lot.

01:07A lot of them couldn't bite the mosquitoes

01:10because the mosquitoes were reduced.

01:11But others have suggested the project is useless,

01:14with one public health expert warning

01:16that by catching mosquitoes,

01:17villagers could make the problem even worse.

01:20The country's health department says the best solution

01:22would probably be to wear protective clothing

01:25and to get rid of any stagnant water.

01:27For now, though, in this neighborhood,

01:29mosquitoes continue to be captured

01:31and sent to their demise.

01:33Scott Huang and Cadence Quiranta for Taiwan Plus.

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