Alerte moustiques Série-Collection : Les Envahisseurs invisibles

Thierry Berrod
2001 - 50 min - Betacam - Couleur - France

An international investigation about a minute animal at war against mankind since the beginning of time. The mosquito can be simply a nuisance. It detects the carbon dioxide that comes from breathing and the lactic acid due to perspiration and this allows it to locate human beings. It can transmit terrible diseases like dengue-fever or malaria. This plague has been eradicated in Europe thanks to massive use of DDT in the 1950s, but it still persists in Africa.
In Burkina Fasso, the lack of funds has allowed traditional therapies based on plants to persist. In Singapore the Ministry of the Environment has organised a special police force to inspect houses since dengue is reappearing there as in other major cities across Asia. In Canada, the mosquito is less dangerous, but it is proliferating at such a rate that the public authorities are obliged to intervene and bacteria are being used in a biological fight.
But although the mosquito is a hereditary enemy for almost everyone, for others we must try to live together. In India, Jainism which advocates non-violence, forbids the destruction of these harmful insects. An identical attitude can be found in Japan in certain religious communities. This film considers the unexpected and often unusual aspects of the relations between man and mosquito.