Nina Fedoroff in her Ted Talk

Nina Fedoroff in her Ted Talk

Nina Fedoroff in her Ted Talk named, “A secret weapon against Zika and other mosquito-borne diseases” says that Zika fever is the newest dreaded disease.  For most adults, it is a mild disease.  It is characterized by fever, headache, joint pain, and sometimes a rush.  She says that most of the people who catch the virus do not even know that they have had it.  The more that is revealed about the Z            ika virus, the scarier it gets.  For example, recently, doctors have noticed an uptick of Guillain-Barre Syndrome in the recent outbreaks of Zika fever. Guillain-Barre Syndrome is very rare, and people mostly recover, but pregnant mothers who contract it are at the risk of microcephaly, a condition where the brain and head of a child are smaller than that of children of their own gender and age.

Like many other viruses, Fedoroff says, Zika virus came from Africa in the Zika forest of Uganda.  Researchers from the nearby Yellow Fever Research institute identified the virus first in a monkey in the Zuka forest.  However, the first human cases were reported in Uganda and Tanzania.  Later, it spread through to West Africa and east through equatorial Asia.  Pakistan, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia were affected, but the disease was mostly in monkeys and mosquitoes.  Fedoroff says that in fact, by the end of sixty years, only 13 human cases had been reported.  Shortly after, in the tiny Micronesian Yap Islands, there was an outbreak that affected 75 percent of the population (Fedoroff, 2016).  Zika is not airborne; it only spreads through mosquito bites.

Zika fever then spread to French Polynesia in 2013, leading to an explosive outbreak in which 30,000 people were affected. It radiated around Pacific, a few outbreaks were reported in the Cook Islands in New Caledonia, in Vanuatu, in the Solomon Islands, around the coast of South America and the Easter Island.  In 2014, it was suspected that the World Cup soccer fans brought the Zika fever to Brazil, although others suspected it was brought by Pacific Islanders participating in championship canoe races that were held in Rio (Fedoroff, 2016).  Currently, the virus is being transmitted locally by mosquitoes through South America, Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean Islands. It is reported that many cases that have been diagnosed locally in the United States were contracted elsewhere, and then transmitted locally in Miami.

Fedoroff says that preventing infection can either be done by protecting people or by eliminating the mosquitoes.  The easiest, though, would be protecting the people by getting vaccinated before traveling into Zika areas.  There isn’t a vaccine yet for the Zika fever, so that is not an option.  The only protective option available as yet is applying insect repellant or covering up, which is not entirely effective because one could forget.  One of the ways to control the mosquitoes carrying the virus is by spraying insecticide (Fedoroff, 2016).  The process requires you to wear protective gear to avoid getting harmed by the toxic chemicals. Staying home to avoid getting in contact with the Zika spreading insects is an option as well, but it is not completely fool proof because Zika fever can also be sexually transmitted.

There are other ways, however, of getting the insects that spread the virus under control without the risk that toxic chemicals cause.  One such method is biological controls.  In her view, Rachel Carson, author of “Silent Spring,” tells a story of how a very nasty insect pest of livestock was eliminated in the last century.  She recollects how immature forms of the insect in their pupae stage which were genetically modified to be sterile were grown to adult stage and then were released in different parts of the Western Hemisphere. Using planes the insects were released in Mexico and Central America and they were eventually eliminated. The knowledge of genetics would in achieving the elimination of such insects.

Fedoroff observed the female mosquito is the one that does all the dirty work.  She bites to get blood as a meal to feed her offspring.  Males don’t bite, they don’t have the parts to bite, and they do not have to feed their offspring.  That is entirely the work of the female.  Oxitec genetically modified a mosquito so that when it mates a wild female, the eggs do not develop into adulthood.  Scientists added a single gene that codes for a protein that feeds back on itself to keep cranking out more protein.  The extra copies go and gum up the mosquitoes’ genes, killing the organism (Fedoroff, 2016).  To keep it alive, the laboratory then uses tetracycline to shut off that gene and allows normal development.  The added gene makes the insect glow under UV light so that when it is released, it can give all kinds of data regarding how long the insect lived and how far it went.  In the pupal stage, the females are larger than the males.  They are sorted into males and females at the  pupal stage, and then they only allow the male mosquitoes to grow into adulthood.  They then take the male mosquitoes and put them in milk cartons and drive around the city, releasing them guided by the GPS.  When the method was used in Brazil, in just one year, it brought down the cases of dengue by 91% (Fedoroff, 2016).  It is therefore necessary to conclude that simple genetic modifications can be used to alter the whole species to have the desired traits.

As Rachel Carson states, biological control of harmful insects can be both more effective and much more environmentally friendly than using insecticides and other toxic chemicals.  That means that biological control would be the safest way to control Zika and other mosquito-borne diseases.  It involves GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) and though the FDA (Food and Drug Administration decided that it would regulate the genetically modified mosquito, the local residents began a protest when they heard that there would be genetically modified mosquitoes tested in the community.  They even organized a petition to collect signatures, and a trial is to be held, which will determine if the trials will be permitted at all.  It would serve the community well if they were helped understand that there GMO insects are not harmful at all.

The methods that are being used to curb the Zika fever are for their own benefit.  Miami should realize they need better ways to control insects that spread the Zika virus and other mosquito-borne diseases like Dengue fever.  Having seen what extent of damage the diseases can cause, they should start changing their attitudes and embracing the methods that the research institutions have come up with for pest control (Fedoroff, 2016).  They should understand that these methods are not harmful; they are helpful and for their own good.  The GMO, for example, has been tested and found to be both safe and effective.

To conclude, Fedoroff issues a new perspective about the management of deadly diseases such as the Zika virus. Since the virus is mostly spread by mosquitos, Fedoroff offers that it can be better managed if a biological control of the mosquitos is enhanced. The speaker issues a statement about the genetic modification of mosquitos which is an easy process that does not harm the environment with severe impacts like spraying insecticide does. Therefore, management of diseases that are spread by organisms such as mosquito need a redress which is more biological and which modifies them such that they stop hosting and spreading the diseases. The ramifications would be that the end result of protecting people from the diseases is realized while at the same time, there would be less harm inflicted on the environment.