In the backyards of rural Cambodia, a tiny weapon is being deployed to fight dengue fever, the world's fastest-spreading tropical disease, which causes debilitating flu-like symptoms and can develop into a deadly hemorrhagic fever.
More than 3,000 households in Kampong Cham province, which has one of the highest dengue rates in Cambodia, have been given colorful guppy fish to breed in barrels of water that villagers keep close to their homes for cleaning and cooking.
Presenting the results of a one-year pilot project, charity Malaria Consortium said the larvae-eating guppies have helped to reduce the presence of potentially dengue-carrying mosquitoes by 46 percent during the trial at a cost of a few cents per fish.