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WORLD NEWSWednesday 9 March 2016
App helps in Brazil’s fight against Zika-spreading mosquito
Luciana Santos shows the photo she sent via the app called “Sem Dengue,” or “Without Dengue,” cator function automati- ing to ever-increasing num-
in Niteroi, Brazil, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. cally tagged the picture bers of complaints.
with the exact spot it was Since its launch earlier this
(AP Photo/Leo Correa) made and sent a detailed year, the app has generat-
alert to City Hall. Within ed hundreds of complaints,
JENNY BARCHFIELD cently launched an app with unusually small heads 72 hours, officials had de- Mayor Rodrigo Neves said.
called “Sem Dengue,” or and brain damage that ployed a team to deal with He said many of the reports
Associated Press “Without Dengue.” It allows can cause mental retar- the puddles. “It’s a way for pinpoint sites inside residen-
residents to report stagnant dation and a host of long- us to help our city, (which) tial complexes or other pri-
NITEROI, Brazil (AP) — For water that can serve as a term problems. is our role as citizens,” said vate buildings that would
breeding ground for the So when Santos recently Santos, a manager of an be hard for the inspectors
Luciana Santos, doing Aedes aegypti mosquito. came across several pud- oncology clinic who says to find on their own.
Brazil has stepped up its dles swimming with mos- she has seen many friends It’s had the added ben-
her part in Brazil’s fight to fight against Aedes since quito larvae while strolling and relatives catch both efit of increasing people’s
researchers here linked an on Jurujuba Beach with Zika and dengue. “They awareness of their sur-
control the mosquito that outbreak of Zika virus with her parents and son, she (City Hall) have no way of roundings and their own
a surge in cases of micro- snapped a photo and seeing everything, but the habits in this city of 490,000
spreads the Zika virus, den- cephaly, a rare birth de- sent the shot through the population’s help contrib- people, Neves said.
fect that leaves babies app. The app’s geo-lo- utes a lot” to rooting out “I think the ‘Without Den-
gue and other diseases mosquitoesDotted with gue’ app is without a
washed-up trash and de- doubt quite a successful
is as easy as a couple of bris and lined with small strategy to mobilize the lo-
wooden fishing boats, Juru- cal community for the fight
clicks on her smartphone. juba Beach is rife with po- against Aedes,” he said,
tential mosquito breeding adding that the app was
Santos lives in Niteroi, which spots. When it rains, every- among several tech-based
thing from the hulls of boats solutions that Niteroi has
is across Guanabara Bay to plastic ice cream tubs rolled out recently to better
and bottle caps fill with wa- understand citizens’ needs
from Rio de Janeiro, and ter, creating places where and demands. For Helio
the insect can lay its eggs. Costa, one of the agents
it’s where authorities re- The beach has become deployed to sites reported
a regular stop for Niteroi’s through the app, a behav-
around half-dozen mosqui- ioral sea change is needed
to inspectors, who thanks to to win the fight against Zika.
the app are now respond- He said he rounds up as
Puerto Rico drifter arrested in killing that transfixed many
DANICA COTO home in the pre-dawn Ana Cacho lost custody Gonzalez described Rivera some juice and took a
Associated Press hours of March 9, 2010. of her two daughters just as a strong, intelligent man knife, Gonzalez said. He
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) “As time went by, many days after the killing as a who once served in the U.S. said the suspect tried to
— Puerto Rico’s Justice theories were floated ... result of those suspicions. Army. flee upon realizing people
Department said Tuesday and they were all debated It is unclear if she will now He said the killing occurred were inside the house, but
that it has solved the killing in the media,” Justice regain custody of them. just hours after Rivera was he attacked the boy when
of a young boy in an Secretary Cesar Gonzalez Authorities previously had mistakenly released from he saw him.
upscale neighborhood six said. said the drifter was not prison following his arrest Police said Cacho took her
years ago — a case that “I am confident that the a suspect. But Gonzalez in the slaying of another son to a clinic a couple hours
transfixed and angered murder of Lorenzo Gonzalez said new evidence and homeless man. He said after he was attacked and
many in the U.S. territory. is absolutely resolved. We assistance from the FBI Rivera sought a ride to the said she thought he had
A one-armed drifter are doing justice in the face led them to file charges capital of San Juan, but an fallen from bed as he had
believed to be mentally ill of such a terrible incident.” against Luis Gustavo Rivera acquaintance could take on a previous occasion.
was charged in the killing The arrest surprised many Seijo, who is being held him only to the coastal Gonzalez said he and
of 8-year-old Lorenzo Puerto Ricans because on $3 million bond and is town of Dorado, which others had looked into
Gonzalez, whom authorities former justice officials had scheduled to appear in is where the boy’s family whether the boy’s mother
have said died several previously said they had court March 29. Defense lived at the time. should be charged with
hours after being attacked evidence implicating the attorney Mario Moczo Once in Dorado, Rivera negligence, but that there
with a knife and receiving boy’s mother and a man told reporters his client is broke into the boy’s home was not enough evidence
a blow to the head at his who was with her that night. innocent. and ate cookies, drank to do that.
