Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates shared a plan to outsmart the “world’s deadliest animal” in August 2022.

What happened: Gates wrote on his blog about a building in Medellín, Colombia, where scientists breed “millions and millions” of mosquitoes.

The scientists feed the mosquitoes “generous portions” of fishmeal, sugar and blood, Gates said.

The mosquito breeding factory may seem like a “horror movie plot by a Hollywood writer,” according to the former Microsoft exec, but in reality, the insects “help save and improve millions of lives.”

The mosquitoes in the factory are infected with Wolbachia Bacteria that prevent them from transmitting viral diseases such as dengue, zika, chikungunya and yellow fever to humans, said Scott O’NeillFounder and Head of world mosquito programin a video shared by Gates.

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Why it matters: The released mosquitoes, in turn, pass on the bacteria by mating with mosquitoes in the wild, according to O’Neill.

“Years ago, many people thought the idea of ​​unleashing mosquitoes as allies in the fight against disease was crazy,” Gates said, pointing to data indicating that dengue cases in Medellín have fallen by 89% since the Wolbachia -Mosquitoes were released in 2015.

Gates, the founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundationidentified the greatest risk in 2000 Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes come in the form of dengue, which infects more than 400 million people and kills 20,000 each year.

In July, the philanthropist lifted Mosquito alert and said they killed more people in one day than sharks have killed in 100 years.

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This story was originally published in August 2022.