4 ms·

Is such an invasive method even needed? Malaria deaths are down by almost 50% in the period of 2000-2015 according to WHO data.

godelski 8y ago
This solution isn't about reduction, it is about eradication. It is cost effective and also implies that you can do other things along the same lines. For example, you could do the same thing to Aedes aegypti (another mosquito species that carries thinks like Zika and Yellow Fever). You might be able to do it to bot flies. Lone Star Ticks. Or many others.
- bdamm 8y ago
  While I would love to see tick-borne disease wiped out, I just don't think that wiping out ticks is the right way. Instead, how about wiping out the parasites that are borne by these ticks? It's a never ending cascade of special eradication. Today, ticks and mosquitoes carrying life threatening agents. Tomorrow, perhaps rats, cats, mice, sparrows, bed bugs, termites, and any other organism that we find inconvenient? How about certain kinds of humans, perhaps we can terminate people that are cognitively impaired? Wielding the rod of genocide seems like a poor choice.
  - waserwill 8y ago
    The difference is that while animals like mosquitoes have many offspring and are sexually reproducing, many of the microscopic parasites are not… The gene drive requires sexual reproduction to spread and produce sterile mosquitoes. Huh, maybe this will open an opportunity for sex-non-obligate mosquitoes infected by Wolbachia, if those are even produced by their interaction
    - bdamm 8y ago
      Your answer sounds like "because we can".
grenoire 8y ago
You have to ask why they are down as well.
- _Microft 8y ago
  Bhatt et al. (2015)4 studied the decline of cases of malaria in Africa between 2000 and 2015. They found that the single most important contributor to the decline were insecticide-treated bed nets. According to their findings bed nets were responsible for the aversion of 68% of the 663 million averted cases in Africa between 2000 and 2015. These are 451 million averted cases. Excerpt taken from https://ourworldindata.org/malaria#bed-nets https://ourworldindata.org/malaria#bed-nets . Furthermore only 30% of the population is sleeping under a bed net already in sub-Saharan Africa as mentioned bit further down in the same article. So there's still room for improvements.

godelski 8y ago

This solution isn't about reduction, it is about eradication. It is cost effective and also implies that you can do other things along the same lines. For example, you could do the same thing to Aedes aegypti (another mosquito species that carries thinks like Zika and Yellow Fever). You might be able to do it to bot flies. Lone Star Ticks. Or many others.

bdamm 8y ago
While I would love to see tick-borne disease wiped out, I just don't think that wiping out ticks is the right way. Instead, how about wiping out the parasites that are borne by these ticks? It's a never ending cascade of special eradication. Today, ticks and mosquitoes carrying life threatening agents. Tomorrow, perhaps rats, cats, mice, sparrows, bed bugs, termites, and any other organism that we find inconvenient? How about certain kinds of humans, perhaps we can terminate people that are cognitively impaired? Wielding the rod of genocide seems like a poor choice.
- waserwill 8y ago
  The difference is that while animals like mosquitoes have many offspring and are sexually reproducing, many of the microscopic parasites are not… The gene drive requires sexual reproduction to spread and produce sterile mosquitoes. Huh, maybe this will open an opportunity for sex-non-obligate mosquitoes infected by Wolbachia, if those are even produced by their interaction
  - bdamm 8y ago
    Your answer sounds like "because we can".

grenoire 8y ago

You have to ask why they are down as well.

_Microft 8y ago
Bhatt et al. (2015)4 studied the decline of cases of malaria in Africa between 2000 and 2015. They found that the single most important contributor to the decline were insecticide-treated bed nets. According to their findings bed nets were responsible for the aversion of 68% of the 663 million averted cases in Africa between 2000 and 2015. These are 451 million averted cases. Excerpt taken from https://ourworldindata.org/malaria#bed-nets https://ourworldindata.org/malaria#bed-nets . Furthermore only 30% of the population is sleeping under a bed net already in sub-Saharan Africa as mentioned bit further down in the same article. So there's still room for improvements.