Trials are currently being conducted in a small village of 3,000 people in northeastern Brazil, that have the potential of saving thousands of lives from diseases borne by mosquitoes.
This small village has served as host to one of the first trials of genetically-modified mosquitoes released in the wild and the initial results are amazing: The indigenous population of A aegypti mosquitoes fell by 96%. Due to the success of this single trial, they say it is likely that hundreds of Brazilian lives were spared from the pain and mortality resulting from dengue fever.
A aegypti mosquitoes are the primary vector for dengue fever. This viral disease causes excruciating pain and that is why the implications for severally decreasing dengue, or even wiping it out entirely, are enormous. They estimate between 50 million to 390 million people are infected by dengue fever each year, causing about 25,000 deaths. At this time, there is no cure for dengue fever and about all that a doctor can do is to try and reduce the pain.
The process of modifying mosquitoes was created by Oxitec, a British biotechnology company.
Understandably, there are critics of genetically-modified mosquitoes. That is because no one knows the long-term repercussions of having mosquito-less areas or the potential consequences to humans.
Termite Terry says, “This is an exciting new science that has an enormous potential for sparing thousands from pain and death. If this program is successful, it will have a very positive impact on millions of people around the world and it will reduce the amount of insecticides needed for control.”
