There can be no restrictions on funding. The current remedies needs to go forward while other methods are in the laboratory.
March 30, 2016
By Amy Harmon
With the Zika virus (click here) spreading largely unchecked in Latin America and the Caribbean by way of a now-notorious insect, some of the nation’s leading mosquito researchers are striving to assemble a state-of-the-art DNA map that they say will help them fight the disease with the mosquito’s own genetic code.
March 30, 2016
By Amy Harmon
With the Zika virus (click here) spreading largely unchecked in Latin America and the Caribbean by way of a now-notorious insect, some of the nation’s leading mosquito researchers are striving to assemble a state-of-the-art DNA map that they say will help them fight the disease with the mosquito’s own genetic code.
The
quest involves scientists from assorted disciplines who rarely
collaborate, often compete for funding and have different ideas about
how to genetically manipulate the mosquito, Aedes aegypti.
Some
want to hunt for genes that, if altered in mosquitoes released into the
wild, could drive the species to extinction. Others are trying to
identify genes that control how mosquitoes sense human prey so as to
devise better repellents. Still others favor the idea of selectively
breeding populations of mosquitoes, like corn or cattle, for desirable —
or, at least, less undesirable — traits, such as a preference for
biting animals other than humans....
Understand the opportunity for mutation to defeat insecticide. There is no evidence of resistance to insecticide, but, the opportunity exists with most any insect. The best example is the American Cockroach.
Then realize while these insects have a small lifespan the numbers are growing. A single female mosquito produces large numbers of offspring.
The race to defeat the most fatal mosquito is on. We cannot fail anyone. The funding is not astronomical.
A
woman in Tanzania under a mosquito tent with a relative who was being
treated for malaria. With gene drives, it may be possible to kill off a
mosquito population or make the population resistant to malaria
parasites.
Credit
Uriel Sinai for The New York Times
Understand the opportunity for mutation to defeat insecticide. There is no evidence of resistance to insecticide, but, the opportunity exists with most any insect. The best example is the American Cockroach. Then realize while these insects have a small lifespan the numbers are growing. A single female mosquito produces large numbers of offspring.
The race to defeat the most fatal mosquito is on. We cannot fail anyone. The funding is not astronomical.
Biologists in the United States and Europe (click here) are developing a revolutionary genetic
technique that promises to provide an unprecedented degree of control
over insect-borne diseases and crop pests.
The
technique involves a mechanism called a gene drive system, which
propels a gene of choice throughout a population. No gene drives have
yet been tested in the wild, but in laboratory organisms like the fruit
fly, they have converted almost the entire population to carry the
favored version of a gene.
Gene
drives “could potentially prevent the spread of disease, support
agriculture by reversing pesticide and herbicide resistance in insects
and weeds, and control damaging invasive species,” a group of Harvard biologists wrote last year in the journal eLIFE.
A much discussed application of gene drives would help rid the world of pest-borne diseases like malaria, dengue fever and Lyme disease....
We need to get on with this. The crop issue is a far different discussion. The funding needs to go to mosquito research. Time is a wasting.
The resolve to destroy this species has to be complete. This mutation is a complete surprise and lends itself to human research of the disease as a weapon carrying insect. If this insect continues to exist on Earth, it's ability to develop a new attack on genetics is possible. If the virus did it once, it will do it again.
There is the question of where is the 'virus acquired' by this species of mosquito. The Aedes aegypti is not hatched with the virus residing on it or in it. There is a source of infection.
The destruction of the virus has to be complete. The opportunity of this virus has to be eliminated. It is the virus that is the enemy. The mosquito is a vector. If destroying the vector eliminates the virus, then so be it.
Ecosystems are extremely important to respect, but, there is at least one researcher that states the mosquito can go.
21 July 2010
By Janet Fang
Every day, Jittawadee Murphy (click here) unlocks a hot, padlocked room at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Maryland, to a swarm of malaria-carrying mosquitoes (Anopheles stephensi). She gives millions of larvae a diet of ground-up fish food, and offers the gravid females blood to suck from the bellies of unconscious mice — they drain 24 of the rodents a month. Murphy has been studying mosquitoes for 20 years, working on ways to limit the spread of the parasites they carry. Still, she says, she would rather they were wiped off the Earth.
That sentiment is widely shared. Malaria infects some 247 million people worldwide each year, and kills nearly one million....
We need to get on with this. The crop issue is a far different discussion. The funding needs to go to mosquito research. Time is a wasting.
The resolve to destroy this species has to be complete. This mutation is a complete surprise and lends itself to human research of the disease as a weapon carrying insect. If this insect continues to exist on Earth, it's ability to develop a new attack on genetics is possible. If the virus did it once, it will do it again.
There is the question of where is the 'virus acquired' by this species of mosquito. The Aedes aegypti is not hatched with the virus residing on it or in it. There is a source of infection.
The destruction of the virus has to be complete. The opportunity of this virus has to be eliminated. It is the virus that is the enemy. The mosquito is a vector. If destroying the vector eliminates the virus, then so be it.
Ecosystems are extremely important to respect, but, there is at least one researcher that states the mosquito can go.
21 July 2010
By Janet Fang
Every day, Jittawadee Murphy (click here) unlocks a hot, padlocked room at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Maryland, to a swarm of malaria-carrying mosquitoes (Anopheles stephensi). She gives millions of larvae a diet of ground-up fish food, and offers the gravid females blood to suck from the bellies of unconscious mice — they drain 24 of the rodents a month. Murphy has been studying mosquitoes for 20 years, working on ways to limit the spread of the parasites they carry. Still, she says, she would rather they were wiped off the Earth.
That sentiment is widely shared. Malaria infects some 247 million people worldwide each year, and kills nearly one million....
