Mosquitos' Gene Editing (Essay Sample)

Name Prof Course Date Mosquitos' Gene Editing Malaria remains one of the utmost severe public health issues in middle and lower-income nations, in which, elimination and control will have a great significance. As a communicable illness arising mostly in the sub-tropics and tropics, malaria is produced by plasmodium protozoan parasites of which two are the most fatal: P. vivax and P. falciparum (Marshall & Taylor, 0164). Over 400,000 people died in 2015 owing to these parasites, of which 72% were children below 5 years, and 90% were located in sub-Saharan Africa (Stein). Moreover, over 190 million people (3% of all humans) are infected yearly (Esvelt). These deadly parasites, as well as others with less virulence are spread by mosquitoes. Therefore, a control of mosquitoes or an alteration of their genetic composition may create an avenue to controlling malaria globally. Hence with a grant of 3 million dollars, this is an area I am going to focus on. Currently, the use of interior residual spraying and long-lasting insecticide-treated nets has reduced the malaria prevalence in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, there are always the issues of resistance to the insecticides, and the health hazards they pose to the environment (Resnik 24). However, researchers have developed genetically modified mosquitoes that are either sterile or resilient to the malaria parasite. Strategies like larval source administration revealed a decline in mosquito density. Additionally, the RTS,S/AS01 vaccine's development (which delivers protection for children below 5 years) has delivered extra progress in malaria control's efforts (Tizifa et al. 41). Hence, I'll spend the 1st million on improving the RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine for use by pregnant women and children. Malaria vaccine demonstrates advances in eliminating malaria efforts, although it still under progress and in trials. Researches have shown an effectiveness of up to 60% in reducing the incidence of malaria in tested children by the vaccine which is still undergoing improvements and further testing in south-south Africa (Tizifa et al. 46-47). A further approach is spending the other money portion on developing the CRISP/cas9 gene modifying approach to stop the infection by preventing Anopheles mosquitoes from reproduction or making them genetically resilient to malaria. The idea here is to alter the genetic composition of the mosquito’s reproductive organ’s development such that the produced offspring would be male, effectually resulting in the species’ extinction. The scientists use the CRISPR gene editing tool. CRISPR expresses the transformation of naturally arising bacterial DNA sequences, along with the Cas9 enzyme, into a wildly influential gene modifying tool. It modifies just a distinct organism, which then may be transferred to its offspring. A foremost worry here is that eliminating or considerably suppressing the whole species could have unexpected impacts on the environment or might be utilized to generate biological weapons (Stein). However, it holds a lot of promising in curbing the spread of malaria. In conclusion, given a grant of 3 million dollars, my aim will be to ensure that the whole world benefits from it, and what better way ...