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.
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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.