Report says malaria-carrying mosquitoes have been modified to be infertile. This should prevent the mosquito in passing on the trait.
The Anopheles gambiae is a major carrier of dangerous parasites in Saharan Africa. This area is ravaged by malaria as 90 percent of the annual death cases occur here. Malaria causes more than 430,000 deaths each year and infects up to 200 million people annually.
A study led by a team of scientists in Imperial College London had successfully genetically modified the mosquito. The modification in its gene involves disrupting the egg production in females. The gene drive ensures the gene is passed down at an accelerated rate to the offspring, thus spreading the gene through the entire population over time.
"The field has been trying to tackle malaria for more than 100 years. If successful, this technology has the potential to substantially reduce the transmission of malaria," quipped co-author Professor Andrea Crisanti from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London.
This could eliminate local populations of the malaria-carrying mosquitos. The very least it could do is to drastically reduce their population. These finding is a very important step as this will develop novel methods of vector control.
"As with any new technology, there are many more steps we will go through to test and ensure the safety of the approach we are pursuing. It will be at least 10 more years before gene drive malaria mosquitoes could be a working intervention," added Professor Austin Burt from Imperial's Department of Life Sciences
In 2014, there are 16 countries reporting zero indigenous cases of malaria. These are Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Costa Rica, Iraq, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Oman, Paraguay, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan. However, the bulk of the cases worldwide is in African region, particularly Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
