{"id":5776,"date":"2019-10-07T09:35:23","date_gmt":"2019-10-07T06:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=5776"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:35","slug":"genetically-modifying-mosquitoes-to-control-the-spread-of-disease-carries-unknown-risks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/10\/07\/genetically-modifying-mosquitoes-to-control-the-spread-of-disease-carries-unknown-risks\/","title":{"rendered":"Genetically Modifying Mosquitoes to Control the Spread of Disease Carries Unknown Risks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By The Conversation <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every year,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/neglected_diseases\/vector_ecology\/mosquito-borne-diseases\/en\/\">around\none million people die of mosquito-borne diseases<\/a>&nbsp;according to the\nWorld Health Organization (WHO). This is why mosquitoes are considered one of\nthe deadliest living creatures on the planet \u2014 not because they are lethal\nthemselves, but because many of the viruses and parasites they transmit are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Consider, for example, dengue fever. This mosquito-borne\nvirus is a leading cause of hospitalization and death among children and adults\nin several countries in Asia and Latin America. In 2016, member states in three\nof the six WHO regions&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/news-room\/fact-sheets\/detail\/dengue-and-severe-dengue\">reported\n3.34 million cases<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the absence of an effective vaccine for dengue fever,\nZika fever, chikungunya and other mosquito-borne diseases, researchers have\ndeveloped genetic strategies to reduce mosquito populations. One such strategy\ninvolves the release into the wild of genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes that\nexpress a lethal gene \u2014 a strategy believed to have little impact on the\noverall DNA of wild populations of mosquitoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As an interdisciplinary group of authors, we generally\nsupport technologies that can reduce human disease and suffering. However,\ngiven our combined expertise in science, governance and ethics we have concerns\nthat recent decisions to deploy GM mosquitoes have not been made responsibly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Genetically modified mosquitoes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The transfer of new genes from GM organisms to wild or\ndomesticated non-GM populations is a key criticism of GM crops like soybean and\ncorn. There are concerns that the introduction of GM genes into non-target\nspecies could have&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/scitable\/topicpage\/genetically-modified-organisms-gmos-transgenic-crops-and-732\/\">negative\nconsequences for both human and environmental health<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oxitec, a company that spun out of research at Oxford\nUniversity in the early 2000s, developed and trademarked GM&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.oxitec.com\/our-technology\">Friendly\u2122 mosquitoes<\/a>&nbsp;(also\nknown as strain OX513A of&nbsp;<em>Aedes aegypti<\/em>). These male GM mosquitoes\nhave what the company describes as a \u201cself-limiting\u201d gene, which means that\nwhen these so-called friendly mosquitoes mate, their offspring inherit the\nself-limiting gene which is supposed to prevent them surviving into adulthood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In theory, when these mosquitoes are released in high\nnumbers, a dramatic reduction in the mosquito population should follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/genetically-modifying-mosquitoes-to-control-the-spread-of-disease-carries-unknown-risks-123862\">Read\nmore\u2026<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By The Conversation Every year,&nbsp;around one million people die of mosquito-borne diseases&nbsp;according to the World Health Organization (WHO). This is why mosquitoes are considered one of the deadliest living creatures&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}