Brazil which has one of the world’s largest Mosquito population and the devastating diseases that comes along including the Zika virus has utilized the new science of genetic engineering to add to its arsenal to fight this deadly disease.
This article will give you a brief overview of their tactics to fight the Zika Virus.
There are mosquito reproduction cages at Oxitec, Brazil which has developed genetically engineered mosquitoes to curtail the spread of diseases.
100,000 mosquitos a day are dumped from plastic containers collected from the genetically engineered mosquitos from Oxitec, Brazil to find mates.
They have been genetically engineered to pass a lethal gene to their offspring, which die before they can reach adulthood. In small tests, this approach has lowered mosquito populations by 80 percent or more.
The biotech bugs could become one of the newest weapons in the perennial battle between humans and mosquitoes, which kill hundreds of thousands of people a year by transmitting malaria, dengue fever, Zika which have been called the deadliest diseases in the world. When it comes to killing humans, no other animal even comes close to the Mosquito.
The battle has abruptly become more pressing by what the World Health Organization has called the “explosive” spread of the mosquito-borne Zika virus through Brazil and other parts of Latin America.
Experts say that new methods are needed because the standard practices — using insecticides and removing the standing water where mosquitoes breed — have not proved sufficient.
Oxitec’s genetically engineered mosquitoes, which have been released in the southeastern Brazilian city of Piracicaba, are engineered to pass a lethal gene to offspring, which die before they can reach adulthood.
But the new efforts have yet to be proved, and it would take some years to scale them up to a meaningful level. An alternative to mosquito control, a vaccine against Zika, is not expected to be available soon.
So for now, experts say, the best modes of prevention are to intensify use of the older methods of mosquito control and to lower the risk of being bitten using repellents and by wearing long sleeves.
Women are being advised to not get pregnant and to avoid infested areas if pregnant, since the virus is strongly suspected of causing babies to be born with abnormally small heads and damaged brains.
One old method that is not getting serious attention would be to use DDT, a powerful pesticide that is banned in many countries because of the ecological damage documented in the 1962 book “Silent Spring.” Still, it is being mentioned a bit, and some experts defend its use for disease control “That concern about DDT has to be reconsidered in the public health context,” said Dr. Lyle R. Petersen, director of the division of vector-borne diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He said the damage to fish and wildlife stemmed from widespread outdoor use of DDT in agriculture, not the use of small amounts on walls inside homes to kill mosquitoes. Other experts say the old methods can work if applied diligently.
Our up and coming articles will provide you with the biology of mosquitos, preventive measures and remediation to protect you from the Zika virus during this period of Mosquito infestation in the New York/New Jersey area.
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