LONDON: Scientists have claimed that millions of genetically modified mosquitoes should be released into countries affected by Zika, to bring the disease under control. While the WHO has declared the outbreak as a global public health emergency, scientists at a British biotech company Oxitec believe the virus can be brought under control in just a few months.
Trials in Brazil have already shown that the GM insects can cause populations of the aedes aegypti mosquito to drop by 90 per cent, and cases of dengue to fall by 99 per cent. The World Health Organisation is in favour of the new technology. Hadyn Parry, Chief Executive of Oxitec said, “I think a role out of GM mosquitoes could stop this very quickly indeed. We're expecting to get the go ahead very soon and then this could make a real difference.”
Secretary of Health in Piracicaba, Pedro Mello, said the trial had been a success and they were planning to expand the release in the region and investing in its own GM mosquito factory. “The initial project in CECAP/Eldorado district clearly showed that the Friendly Aedes aegypti solution made a big difference for the inhabitants of the area, helping to protect them from the mosquito that transmits dengue, Zika and chikungunya. It is important to remember that in dengue year 2014/15 CECAP/Eldorado had 133 cases of dengue, the highest incidence in the city of Piracicaba. In 2015/2016, after the beginning of the Friendly Aedes aegypti Project, we had only one case.”
Zika was first discovered in Africa in the 1940s but the first outbreak outside of Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands only occurred last May, when a case was reported in Brazil. Since then the disease has spread to 32 other countries in south and central America and the Caribbean. Current methods of control such as spraying can only reduce populations it by 30-50 per cent. The company has however, come across opposition from anti-GM campaigners who have even claimed that the release of mosquitoes near Sao Paulo in May caused the outbreak.
“It makes me very angry really,” said Parry. “Most of these people don’t live in dengue infected areas, they live in Derbyshire. It’s a sort of arrogance that somebody in the UK thinks they know better than health officials in other countries, and it is going to cost lives.”
