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West African Village Weighs Using Genetically Modified Mosquitoes In Malaria Fight (scientificamerican.com)
New submitter omaha393 writes: A public engagement campaign is underway in the hopes of convincing Burkina Faso residents to allow the release of genetically modified mosquitoes to combat deadly mosquito-borne pathogens. GM mosquitoes rely on a technology called "gene drives." Different gene drives offer different solutions, typically leading to subsequent broods being sterile, predominantly male, resistant to infection or nonviable due to toxic traits. Researchers in this case are only in the preliminary stages of releasing sterile males but hope to begin wider releases of GM mosquitoes in about 6 years.
Burkina Faso is not the only country to pursue GM mosquitoes in efforts to prevent disease. Brazil has become a testing ground for wide release, and last fall voters in Florida Keys approved measures to begin releasing GM mosquitoes to fight the spread of Zika. Both the WHO and the U.S. FDA have approved the technique, but skeptics are critical of the method.
Burkina Faso is not the only country to pursue GM mosquitoes in efforts to prevent disease. Brazil has become a testing ground for wide release, and last fall voters in Florida Keys approved measures to begin releasing GM mosquitoes to fight the spread of Zika. Both the WHO and the U.S. FDA have approved the technique, but skeptics are critical of the method.
I think your underestimating how much suffering malaria causes. Malaria is nasty stuff. It's super painful , leaves you completely unable to get out of bed , you run huge fevers , and because the body can't really mount an antigen defence against it , you'll get it over and over and over again. The end result is it paralyses entire regions by making huge portions of the workforce perpetually sick and this has contributed hugely to Africa's economic misfortunes. A society where almost everyone of age can work is a society where people can work their way out of poverty and that means cleaner water , better tended environments and cheaper government
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
On one hand yay potentially end suffering on the other increase population
This is nonsense. Better health does NOT lead to increased population growth. I leads to a decrease. As parents are more assured that their children will survive and be healthy, they invest greater resources into each child's nutrition and education, and have fewer children. This has happened repeatedly many times throughout the world.
Mosquitoes and Mosquito larvae are critical food sources for numerous creatures. No mosquitoes == no larvae == starving little fish, starving bats, starving birds, starving spiders, etc.. etc.. etc...
Only a few species of mosquito transmit malaria. Most do not. The beauty of this extermination gene is that it only affects the targeted species. The population of other mosquitoes will expand to fill the niche, and the little fishes will be fine.