https://en.sputniknews.africa/20240723/africas-malaria-crisis-can-gmo-mosquitoes-come-to-rescue-1067610532.html
Africa's Malaria Crisis: Can GMO Mosquitoes Come to Rescue?
Africa's Malaria Crisis: Can GMO Mosquitoes Come to Rescue?
Sputnik Africa
Malaria continues to devastate Africa, with vulnerable groups like pregnant women and children being hit the hardest. Despite progress, 95% of global cases and... 23.07.2024, Sputnik Africa
2024-07-23T22:47+0200
2024-07-23T22:47+0200
2024-07-23T22:47+0200
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Africa's Malaria Crisis: Can GMO Mosquitoes Come to Rescue?
Sputnik Africa
Malaria continues to devastate Africa, with vulnerable groups like pregnant women and children being hit the hardest. Despite progress, 95% of global cases and deaths occur on the continent, according to the WHO. Can radical solutions like Kenya's purported research collaboration on GMO mosquitoes help fight mosquito-borne illnesses?
While African nations continue to battle malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases, researchers at Imperial College London and other groups are proposing joint research with Kenyan entomologists to use genetically modified mosquitoes that could "crash the [mosquito] population" or disable their ability to transmit malaria, Dr. Eric Ochomo, the Head of Entomology Department and Senior Research Officer at the Kenya Medical Research Institute – Centre for Global Health Research, tells Sputnik Africa.Given that the idea to deploy GMO mosquitoes is "a new intervention," conducting thorough evaluation and monitoring for their impact on the community, environment, and disease burden should be efficient, according to Dr. Lydiah Kibe, a Principal Researcher and Social Behavioral & Public Health Scientist at Kenya Medical Research Institute - Eastern and Southern Africa Centre of International Parasite Control (ESACIPAC).To find out what else our guests had to say, tune in to the African Currents podcast, brought to you by Sputnik Africa.In addition to the website, you can also catch our episodes on Telegram.► You can also listen to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer, Pocket Casts, Afripods, Podcast Addict.► Check out all the episodes of African Currents.
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Africa's Malaria Crisis: Can GMO Mosquitoes Come to Rescue?
Malaria continues to devastate Africa, with vulnerable groups like pregnant women and children being hit the hardest. Despite progress, 95% of global cases and deaths occur on the continent, according to the WHO. Can radical solutions like Kenya's purported research collaboration on GMO mosquitoes help fight mosquito-borne illnesses?
While African nations continue to battle malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases, researchers at Imperial College London and other groups are proposing joint research with Kenyan entomologists to use genetically modified mosquitoes that could "crash the [mosquito] population" or disable their ability to transmit malaria, Dr. Eric Ochomo, the Head of Entomology Department and Senior Research Officer at the Kenya Medical Research Institute – Centre for Global Health Research, tells Sputnik Africa.
"There has been, especially in agriculture, a lot of the use of genetically modified insects to control other insects. And so it's based on that notion that scientists like ourselves, like people at Imperial College and other groups, are thinking that we could potentially use a similar approach where we genetically modify mosquitoes so that we are hampering them in one way, so that when you release them into the general population, they affect the other mosquito populations in a way that [...] crashes the population," Dr. Ochomo explains.
Given that the idea to deploy GMO mosquitoes is "a new intervention," conducting thorough evaluation and monitoring for their impact on the community, environment, and disease burden should be efficient, according to Dr. Lydiah Kibe, a Principal Researcher and Social Behavioral & Public Health Scientist at Kenya Medical Research Institute - Eastern and Southern Africa Centre of International Parasite Control (ESACIPAC).
"I think because it's a new intervention [...].To see how effective the intervention is especially in reducing the mosquito population and subsequently reducing the malaria burden. So I think in terms of the monitoring and evaluation, we need to streamline that. I think there is need also to, like I said, to have some social science studies that are looking at community acceptance and aligning the communications, especially to the community in relation to the GMO [mosquito]," Dr. Kibe notes.
To find out what else our guests had to say, tune in to the African Currents podcast, brought to you by Sputnik Africa.
In addition to the website, you can also catch our episodes on
Telegram.► Check out all the episodes of African Currents. 
