Half the world's population is at risk of being infected with dengue fever, according to the World Health Organization, WHO. In total, mosquito-borne diseases require over 700,000 human lives each year, and many more are plagued by diseases linked to dengue fever, zika, chikungunya, yellow fever and malaria.

Recently, three cases of zika infection were found in France - the first in which people became infected by European mosquitoes.

Aedes albopictus, also called tiger mosquito, spreads zika virus, among other things.

"Disaster for a country"

The sterile insect technique (SIT) method, which is based on sterilizing males with X-rays, has been used since the 1950s to fight insects, including fruit flies. But it is only now that the technology is to be tested to prevent mosquito-borne diseases.

- This is extremely exciting, says Jan O Lundström, who is a mosquito repellent and researcher at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology at Uppsala University. He has long advocated the method and was previously consulted as an expert by the United Nations Atomic Energy Agency IAEA, which developed the technology and now collaborates with the WHO.

- The hope is that this will save a lot of lives - but not just lives. The mosquito-borne diseases do not kill as many as they injure and it is a disaster for a country to have a population with lots of sick days.

"No quickfix"

Tropical mosquito Aedes aegypti, which spreads viruses that cause dengue fever, yellow fever, zika and chikungunya, is one of the host's most dangerous insects and so far no attempts to reduce its spread have been successful. The idea of ​​WHO's project is that sterilized male mosquitoes, born in the laboratory, should be spread with drones and then mate with local female mosquitoes.

- The females have never agreed that the males "have a condom" so they will mate anyway, but they are on a real rivet. They have no offspring at all. If you do it on a large enough scale, you will crash the local population of contaminants, says Jan O Lundström.

Aedes aegypti, also called gulafebern mosquito.

Because mosquitoes do not bit, they will not be able to spread disease themselves. Thailand is one of the countries that will participate in the pilot project which will start at the beginning of next year and several other countries have shown interest, according to WHO. The advantage of the method is that it does not harm the environment - the disadvantage that it requires money and resources, says Jan Lundström.

- There is no cheap quickfix. Governments and others with resources must decide.