Eradicating Malaria With Gene Editing
Malaria is a leading cause of death in nearly all of the West African nation’s 22 million inhabitants, especially children, are at risk of the disease, according to the World Health Organization.
Malaria killed nearly 19,000 people in Burkina Faso in 2021, the most recent data from the WHO regional office for Africa showed.
The disease is also one of the main causes of death in the wider African region, which shoulders the world’s largest malaria burden. For many years, malaria control interventions, including the use of insecticide-treated bed nets, have helped to reduce transmission and deaths in affected countries.
However, “malaria deaths remain unacceptably high, and cases have continued to increase since 2015,” WHO adding that the upswing in infections was due to the rising cost of providing those interventions as well as the “biological threats” that enable drug resistance and aid vector mosquitoes in developing immunity to insecticides.
Malaria killed an estimated 619,000 people globally in 2021, according to WHO’s last published data. Around 96% of those deaths happened in Africa, the health body said, adding that 80% percent of casualties on the continent “were among children under the age of 5..
Burkina Faso born Scientist Professor abdoulaye Diabate that innovating malaria control tools was the only way to conquer the disease. “Although bed nets are doing a fantastic job … we now have widespread insecticide resistance in the different species of mosquitoes, specifically those that are transmitting malaria,” he said.
“This makes it difficult to defeat malaria with these conventional tools. This is why it is extremely important to innovate and get new tools that can complement the existing ones. (Otherwise) in no way would we be able to defeat malaria.”
“The genetically modified mosquitoes are the ones to do the job for you … unlike the other (malaria control) interventions where humans run from place to place to deliver.
“The good thing about this technology that we are developing is that if it works as expected, it’s not only going to be cost-effective, but it will also be sustainable and can be deployed in remote and difficult-to-access areas in Africa. We believe that once the technology is ready and we release it and it works as expected, it should be able to be the game-changer.”
“Every living creature, even if it appears dangerous or harmful to humans, fulfills important tasks in its habitat,” SOS said on its website. “The extermination or even manipulation of a species will therefore have consequences for the entire ecosystem,” it added. The advocacy group explained that mosquitoes are among the major sources of food for many animals such as birds and dragonflies, while recalling that “in the Camargue, a nature reserve in southern France, the decimation of mosquitoes with a biological pesticide … led to a reduction in the number and diversity of birds and dragonflies.” Diabate told that “specific concerns” about gene drive technology will be “factored into the development process” of the project and added that he has dedicated his life to fighting malaria, which he said took a toll on his personal life.
Discussion about this post