Progress In The War On Mosquitoes

[Revoltingest]

Dang, there's a paywall, but enuf info to get the gist of it.
Modified mosquitoes wipe out whole city’s dengue for the first time

Dengue virus has effectively been wiped out in Townsville, Australia, following the release of anti-dengue mosquitoes in 2014.

The Queensland city has recorded zero cases of locally-transmitted dengue in the four years since the modified mosquitoes were released, compared to 54 cases in the previous four years.

The trial represents the first successful use of modified mosquitoes to eliminate a mosquito-borne virus across a whole city.

Scott O’Neill at Monash University and his colleagues infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes with naturally-occurring Wolbachia bacteria, which hamper the mosquitoes from....

 

[siti]

Yes - they're doing the same thing here in Fiji now - I'm hoping it works because Dengue is very unpleasant and dangerous esp. to infants and the elderly. I'm impressed with the success they had in Townsville.

 

[Revoltingest]

Yes - they're doing the same thing here in Fiji now - I'm hoping it works because Dengue is very unpleasant and dangerous esp. to infants and the elderly. I'm impressed with the success they had in Townsville.

Why didn't I notice that name before?

 

[Subduction Zone]

Try this article:

An Australian City Beats Dengue Fever Using Special Mosquitoes | Smart News | Smithsonian

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Fascinating, but kind of scary knowing if it can be used to heal, it can be used to harm.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

Fascinating, but kind of scary knowing if it can be used to heal, it can be used to harm.

We are the first nation on Earth to be WMD capable...

(Weapons of Mosquito-ish Destruction)

 

[siti]

We are the first nation on Earth to be WMD capable...

I thought you guys already had wombats of mass destruction?

 

[Father Heathen]

I thought you guys already had wombats of mass destruction?

Their first (failed) WMDs were bomberangs.

 

[siti]

Their first (failed) WMDs were bomberangs.

Of course! Its all coming back to me now!

 

[lewisnotmiller]

I thought you guys already had wombats of mass destruction?

Sure, but you can't stealth insert wombats into Asian countries. They kinda stand out.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

Their first (failed) WMDs were bomberangs.

Our second effort was Ken Ham. Still assessing the destructive power of that. It's a slow burn.

 

[PureX]

So how they gonna get rid of the mosquitos, now?

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Fascinating, but kind of scary knowing if it can be used to heal, it can be used to harm.

The hand raised can strike or caress. Anything can be used to heal or harm.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Try this article:

An Australian City Beats Dengue Fever Using Special Mosquitoes | Smart News | Smithsonian

Interesting approach. A few years ago, I came across some work by a US company on using transgenic mosquitoes and testing here in the US. I do not recall the details except to say the Australian example is a different technical approach to a similar problem.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

The hand raised can strike or caress. Anything can be used to heal or harm.

Mosquitoes are a bit more than a raised hand. I can only hope that anyone who would have ill intentions of weaponizing such a thing realizes the risk for global and uncontrollable spread is too great, and likely to end up biting them before it's over with.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Mosquitoes are a bit more than a raised hand. I can only hope that anyone who would have ill intentions of weaponizing such a thing realizes the risk for global and uncontrollable spread is too great, and likely to end up biting them before it's over with.

The form of the hand hardly matters. The point is that practically anything can be weaponized. We should be rationally concerned, but not every advance in technology is going to be turned into a weapon even if it could be. After reading about this, I am not convinced that the technology could be easily weaponized, especially in light of so many much easier and more readily available means. I'm not sure what danger you think would be globally disseminated by this specific application. Wolbachia is a ubiquitous insect parasite and the strain deployed is no more detrimental to people than any other strain. Using the method to cross human pathogens into mosquitoes to attack people would be redundant since mosquitoes already naturally vector a number of very serious disease pathogens. There is evidence that this technique is successful with other mosquito-vectored diseases as well. It has the potential to be a seriously valuable tool in the management of mosquito-vectored diseases globally.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

I'm curious if this technique could be applied to malaria. That would certainly impact a portion of the world that is often left behind when it comes to modern technology and one that is also subjected to high incidence of malaria.

 

[Revoltingest]

 

[Heyo]

Dang, there's a paywall, but enuf info to get the gist of it.
Modified mosquitoes wipe out whole city’s dengue for the first time

Dengue virus has effectively been wiped out in Townsville, Australia, following the release of anti-dengue mosquitoes in 2014.

The Queensland city has recorded zero cases of locally-transmitted dengue in the four years since the modified mosquitoes were released, compared to 54 cases in the previous four years.

The trial represents the first successful use of modified mosquitoes to eliminate a mosquito-borne virus across a whole city.

Scott O’Neill at Monash University and his colleagues infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes with naturally-occurring Wolbachia bacteria, which hamper the mosquitoes from....

I'd still prefer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_laser