This isn't the first dangerous disease spread by mosquitos, and may not be the last. Not to mention how incredibly annoying they are in general.
I've been to Brazil a number of times, and the thing I could never understand is why, in a tropical country knee-deep in hungry disease causing mosquitos, is there not a single screen on any of the windows there? Big mistake, they're not expensive. They are cheaper and safer than rubbing chemicals into your skin every day.
Here we have screens even in the desert where there are few mosquitos, they still keep out flies and moths, etc.
When I lived in Brazil, we had window screens, but it was on an affluent area in the coast of Rio. I'm not sure it made things that much better though. You need a lot of discipline to keep those screens shut all the time when you live in a tropical country and go outside all the time.
We just learned that during the summer, around 7pm, it was time to close doors and windows and turn the A/C on.
In England at least you can't easily find them and even if you could your local council would likely not approve the planning permission to install them.
It's because the Aedes Aegypty mosquito feeds during the day. Most mosquitos prefer to feed during the night so fortifying your house against them works, but this mosquito will just bite you the next morning when you leave the house.
They still reduce exposure. One might be at an office during the day. If not, you are free to continue with the repellent, it's not like it is a binary choice.
Most counties don't have window screens. They've rare I'm Europe, Australia, New Zealand, etc. Most of those places also don't have residential air conditioning either.
I lived in Melbourne and never had them in my place and most of my friends didn't. Now that I think about it, my friends in Alice had screen doors and possibly screened windows. Of course they had Aircon too cause...well...Alice
I've been to Brazil a number of times, and the thing I could never understand is why, in a tropical country knee-deep in hungry disease causing mosquitos, is there not a single screen on any of the windows there? Big mistake, they're not expensive. They are cheaper and safer than rubbing chemicals into your skin every day.
Here we have screens even in the desert where there are few mosquitos, they still keep out flies and moths, etc.