In January 1953, the US Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine at the request of Benjamin A. Bitter, a Curaçao veterinarian, started a pilot to eradicate the screwworm fly. About 1,000 per square kilometer males sterilized by irradiation with cobalt were released from aircraft, every week. As females mate only once, chances were huge that there would be no new screwworm flies; and the longer the process, went on, the smaller that chance became. Curaçao in its isolation was an ideal test site.
In 10 weeks, the screw worm fly was totally eradicated here.
Because of the laxity of certain bodies the fly came back several times, including in the sixties, and as far as I know, it is now living on the island.
But the technique resembles a new one to eradicate the tiger mosquito, Aedes aegypti, which spreads yellow fever, dengue and chikungunya. Although intensive fighting took place around 1955 (DDT) this had no lasting results either. Again due to lack of follow-up and especially because of the rubbish heaps which disfigure the whole island, ideal breeding grounds for the mosquito larvae.
In Brazil there now is an attempt to eliminate the mosquito, devised by the Oxford Business Oxitec using genetically engineered males; the females which pair with those are then sterile. [Correction: offspring die before reaching maturity.] This technique, applied on the densely populated Curaçao, would be are much more effective and cheaper than in the sparsely populated Brazil, where constantly new invasions from neighboring countries can be expected.
Why our Health Service and Minister Whiteman here have not been applying is not clear. It is a one-time expense that, perhaps, I wouldn't know, will not even be much higher than what is currently paid annually for spraying.
Unfortunately, it will not help against the dumps.