Zika virus prevention method: Use mosquito to kill mosquitoes

While waiting for the vaccine, scientists have proposed the idea of ​​using mutated mosquitoes to prevent Zika virus from spreading.

Zika virus is spreading fast with the same speed as wildfires. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), millions of people are at risk of being infected with this virus.

Zika is transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito. This virus can cause brain atrophy. The disease affects immediately during the birth of the fetus and threatens about 4 million people before the vaccine is studied.

They want to release mutated mosquitoes into Brazilian forests to kill the mosquitoes that carry the disease.

But scientists at the UK-based Oxitec biotech company plan to deal with the virus without resorting to vaccines. They want to release mutated mosquitoes into Brazilian forests to kill the mosquitoes that carry the disease.

Mosquitoes called Aedes aegypti will be genetically modified in the laboratory and then released into the wild to mate with wild mosquitoes. This modified gene will make the mosquitoes born early, before they can reproduce.
This method has been successfully applied to prevent other tropical diseases such as dengue fever.

Oxitec's experiments are conducted at various locations in Latin America and Asia. The results showed that mutated mosquitoes reduced the population of natural mosquitoes by 90%. The company also plans to open a laboratory at Piracicaba, Brazil.

In a recent press release, Oxitec CEO, Hadyn Parry said that when the main source for the spread of Zika and hemorrhagic viruses increased rapidly, the use of mutated mosquitoes could be considered a solution while The treatments are being studied.