Africa-Press – Uganda. There is an ongoing conversation between the National Environmental Management Authority (Nema) and Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) over a new method to control the spread of malaria.
UVRI approached the Entebbe Municipality leadership regarding plans to release genetically modified mosquitoes (GMMs) for experimental purposes in a move to fight malaria. This is intended to significantly suppress the population of mosquitoes or eliminate them thereby stopping malaria transmission and deaths. Scientists at UVRI say that when the GMMs mate with normal mosquitoes, the offsprings will be less fertile and thus reduce the multiplication of mosquitoes.
The GMMs, according to scientists, do not transmit malaria parasites when they bite. This, they claim, will be a magic bullet.
Malaria kills 16 Ugandans daily and causes an estimated annual economic loss of $500 million (Shs1.8 trillion) due to treatment costs and work time lost, according to government statistics.
There are so many measures that have been employed to fight malaria by this government. Sensitisation, mosquito net usage and availability of treatment have been critical. However, out-of-pocket spending and work time lost due to malaria-related sickness is also high in the country because the available methods have had an inconsistent impact on curbing the malaria burden.
Now, the new magic wand is GMMs that have been criticised across the world. The GMMs which Nature.com reported last year in May that were released in the United Kingdom by Biotech firm Oxitec for experimental purposes, have attracted strong criticism from conservationists.
Here, Nema has objected to the announcement to breed GMMs by UVRI. The latter claim to have embarked on a series of activities aimed at breeding and releasing the GMMs.
What should have come first? There doesn’t seem to have been a consultative process between the two government entities before UVRI made a decision.
Nema and UVRI ought to have set up a joint committee from the onset. That would have helped in having a process where both parties move together and not have a public spat. In the USA, The Environmental Protection Agency cleared the release of 2.4 billion genetically-modified mosquitoes in California and Florida.
The mosquitoes are non-biting Aedes aegypti males engineered to only produce viable male offspring, per the company. Oxitec says the plan will reduce numbers of invasive Aedes aegypti, which can carry diseases like Zika, yellow fever and dengue. Researchers have completed the first open-air study. According to the biotechnology firm running the experiment, the results are positive. The risk assessment in Uganda must have started yesterday, not tomorrow.
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