We Should be Optimistic about Mosquito-Borne Diseases Control.
Mosquito-borne diseases are those spread by the bite of an infected mosquito, and they include Zika, West Nile fever, Chikungunya, dengue, yellow fever, malaria, etc. Nearly 700 million people worldwide get a mosquito-borne illness each year resulting in over 1 million deaths. Vaccination is proved cost-effective in decreasing the burden of diseases. The working mechanisms are stated as “Oxitec uses advanced genetics to insert a self-limiting gene into its mosquitoes. The gene is passed on to the insect’s offspring, so when male Oxitec engineered mosquitoes are released into the
wild and mate with wild females, their offspring inherit the self limiting trait.
The traditionally widely used approaches include larval control by eliminating mosquito breeding sites, and adult control by mosquito traps and/or spraying residual insecticides. However, the practice of breeding sites elimination is difficult to manipulate/perform; the use of insecticides is not ecologically friendly which can hard bees and other insects; and mosquito traps do not work well and they attract other insects as well. On the other hand, the trap might not work in some unfavorable conditions. The resulting offspring will die before reaching adulthood, and the local mosquito population will decline”. The Caribbean, and in Brazil, Malaysia and Panama, starting in 2009 and 2011, respectively. We have a good example of use of veterinary drugs in human medicine with the control of river blindness.
The prospect of potential methods against mosquito vectored human diseases is increasingly emerging as a reality. Corresponding policies have to be adopted in line with the use and deployment of mosquito-control methods, concerning the possible incurred biosafety and social, cultural and ethical changes.
Epidemiol Open J. 2017; 3(1): e1-e2. doi: 10.17140/EPOJ-3-e001