7/8: Larvicide & Drones

Hello! Instead of publishing twice, I’ll summarize what I did in week 7 as well as week 8 as I was sick and traveling during week 7 so content-wise there wasn’t much to expand upon. I continued my progress on the report, and will likely be done next week and ready to edit into a final draft. I also continued research into malaria control methods specific to Pakistan, along with floodplain management.

Utilizing larvicide, a biological or chemical insecticide designed to kill mosquito larvae before their mature stage, is a strategy that could be very helpful for Pakistan, especially because it can target areas while being time-saving. Drone-based larviciding, using drones that can carry tanks with larvicide. Focusing these efforts on stagnant water that was created by the floods affecting northern and southern Pakistan could be extremely helpful in significantly reducing mosquito populations and breeding grounds, and preventing transmission outbreaks. Drones can also reach inaccessible breeding sites without having to send medical professionals to rural areas with limited facilities. Some of the areas, such as the Sidh or Balochistan province, may be more high-risk and drones eliminate the need for personnel to travel while being generally more accurate than ground surveys for data. Overall, drone-based larviciding offers a new, unique approach for Pakistan to combat malaria, particularly in the aftermath of the floods that have created widespread mosquito breeding grounds. By leveraging this technology and addressing additional challenges that contributed to the malaria transmission spike, such as the environment and guarantee that drones would raise concerns amongst local communities, Pakistan can help make its fight against malaria more efficient and successful by use of drone based larviciding.

Thanks for reading this week’s blog! Next week I’ll still continue my paper as well as larvicide research. I am slightly behind in terms of my paper, so that will be taking my time this coming week to get that edited later. (I was meant to publish this blog post earlier, but it seems I forgot to actually hit the submit button) See you next week!