Irradiated pests set for mass release in bid to make mosquito-borne disease a thing of the past
With more than half the world now at risk from mosquito-transmitted dengue fever, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN has taken the lead on a global effort to eradicate the disease – and many others – by measuring the impact of releasing millions of sterilized pests across several continents, it announced on Thursday.
Using a process known as Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) – developed decades ago to target crop-eating insects in the United States – UN researchers have spent the last 10 years adapting it to mosquitoes.
Working with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) tropical diseases programme, they have now drawn up guidelines for nations wanting to tackle disease outbreaks transmitted by the winged bugs.
“Countries have already started like Italy, Greece and Mauritius, and others are on the point of doing it, for example the United States, France and Brazil,” said Jeremy Bouyer, medical entomologist at the Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, a joint International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) / Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) initiative. “We already have evidence that SIT is able to reduce the density of mosquitoes very significantly and now we must prove that it will also impact the transmission of the disease.”
Describing the Sterile Insect Technique as “an insect birth control method”, Mr. Bouyer explained that it involves the mass-release of sterile males “that will out-compete the wild males in the field and they will induce sterility in the females so that their eggs will not hatch and so you will control the next generation”.
If this is done for long enough, “you will be able to reduce and in some cases eliminate the target population” he added.
Highlighting progress in automating and upscaling the mass production of sterile mosquito populations which can be released from a drone over communities, Mr. Bouyer added: “The important bottlenecks which were sex sorting and drone release are now solved so we are ready for pilot testing.”
Dengue, along with other diseases transmitted by mosquitoes - malaria, Zika, chikungunya and yellow fever – account for about 17 per cent of all infectious diseases globally, according to WHO.
The agency is expecting 110 countries to report dengue cases this year.
On average, WHO registers three million cases every year, but they may reach four million in 2019, it said.
Florence Fouque, Team leader of Vectors, Environment and Society unit, TDR (Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases) said that it would likely take around four years before it is known whether the pilot tests have been successful in reducing disease transmission.
“Sometimes very low population of mosquito can still transmit disease, so what we have to measure is the impact on the people, and this is what we want to do because it has never been done until now,” she said.
“Two major species of mosquitoes … are transmitting several diseases, which are viruses, including dengue, zika, chikungunya, yellow fever, et cetera….it is only about two species, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus.”
If successful, the potential health benefits could be enormous, Raman Velayudhan, Coordinator, WHO Department of Neglected Tropical Diseases said.
Of the current dengue epidemic, he noted: “Many countries in the world have reported an increase, and we have reports from Bangladesh, Brazil, Philippines, and a few African countries and almost 10 other Latin American countries, dengue has continued to increase.”
Highlighting the safety of the irradiation technique, Mr. Bouyer insisted that no test tube manufactured genes – known as transgenes – were being inserted into mosquitoes.
“The mutations we are creating with this system are random, so we are not transgenic, we are not putting transgenes into the mosquitoes and they are occurring naturally in the population,” he said. “It’s just that we have enough mutations to create full sterility in what we release. But there is no particular concern with what we release, the mosquitoes are not radioactive, they are just irradiated and thus sterilized.”
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The telecommunications shutdowns in Afghanistan in September had serious and far-reaching impacts on people’s lives, according to a briefing paper published today by the UN Human Rights Office and the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence at the UN Geneva press briefing made the following comment on the ASEAN declaration on the right to a healthy environment.
1
1
1
Edited News | IFRC , OCHA , WMO
‘Catastrophic’ Hurricane Melissa hours from landfall in Jamaica as humanitarians rush to save lives
Millions in Jamaica and across the Caribbean are bracing for massive impact from Hurricane Melissa on Tuesday as the UN and partners are warning of a “severe” and “immediate” humanitarian threat.
1
1
Edited News | WHO
‘We need all routes to open’: in Gaza WHO calls for ramp-up of medevacs, easier access for essentials
Two weeks since a ceasefire agreement entered into force in Gaza the World Health Organization (WHO) noted progress on the flow of aid while calling for more evacuations of critical patients and eased entry for essential medicines and supplies.
1
12
1
1
Edited News | WMO , UNITED NATIONS
UN chief urges boost to life-saving weather warning systems, stresses role of climate change science
No country is safe from the devastating impacts of extreme weather — and saving lives means making early-warning systems accessible to all, UN chief António Guterres said on Wednesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | WFP
Gazans’ response to food distributions ‘overwhelming’ as humanitarians scale up under fragile ceasefire
In Gaza, the ceasefire is enabling UN humanitarians to reach more desperate people with life-saving food, but greater access is needed to contain the spread of famine.
1
1
1
Edited News | WFP , OCHA
UN urges opening of all Gaza crossings to deliver three-month food supply
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has warned food aid cannot reach everyone in Gaza unless all border crossings are opened, particularly in the north where famine was declared in August. The agency says it already has enough supplies in place to feed the entire population of the Strip for three months – if full access is granted by Israel.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNDP , UNICEF , OCHA , ICRC
Around $70 billion will be needed to reconstruct Gaza and make it safe after two years of war, UN development experts said on Tuesday, while aid agencies reported that far too little aid continues to reach desperate Palestinians.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
The UN human rights office, OHCHR, on Friday welcomed the Nobel Peace Prize committee’s decision to name Maria Machado as this year’s laureate, in recognition of her work promoting the Venezuelan people’s democratic hopes.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA , UNICEF , WHO
As Gazans jammed the main route leading north on Friday after a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was announced, UN aid teams repeated their call to open all crossings into the devastated enclave to prevent famine spreading.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNICEF , WHO
Two years of Gaza-Israel war bring ‘indescribable’ pain: UN humanitarians
Two years since the Hamas-led terror attacks on Israel, UN humanitarians on Tuesday reiterated calls for the release of all hostages in Gaza, an immediate ceasefire and an aid surge to alleviate Palestinians’ suffering, as talks on a US-driven peace plan continued in Egypt.
1
1
1
Edited News
Syria prison survivor seeks justice for the missing with UN backing.