ANTI-MALARIA MOSQUITOES, A SCIENCE FICTION COME TO LIFE!
In a type of story usually synonymous with and coming out of Hollywood movie studios, a science fiction has come alive! Mosquitoes have been re-engineered and genetically modified to serve as a vector of vaccines instead of malaria? Wonders of science, one may say, but in this our rapidly evolving world, everything is possible. By this huge scientific leap for mankind, malaria dispensing parasitic mosquitoes will henceforth turn a new leaf and become a friendly vaccine-dispensing agent instead. Thereafter, whenever mosquitoes bite you, instead of dumping the usual malaria parasite in your body, it will deposit anti-malaria vaccine? Wonderful, really! In a breakthrough scientific experiment conducted in Europe, mosquitoes were adapted as flying needles, delivering vaccine of live malaria parasites through their bites; which in turn serve as anecdote to malaria. Thereafter, anyone bitten by the doctored mosquito, developed immunity to future malaria while non-vaccinated individuals still fell victims to malaria? Icheoku says, with nearly one million people killed each year by malaria, mostly children under the age of 5 in Africa; this breakthrough is what the world has been waiting for to answer the scourge of malaria. Malaria starts when an infected mosquito bites a person and injects immature malaria parasites into the skin which then travels to the liver where they mature and multiply. From there, they enter the bloodstream and attack red blood cells, at which stage the victim falls sick. People sometimes develop immunity to malaria by frequent exposures to the parasite over a period of time. The drug chloroquine is also effective against malaria parasites! This breakthrough study was researched in a laboratory at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands; funded by two foundations and a French government grant. Hopefully, before too long, the result will be commercially available to help in the fight against the killer disease, malaria. Icheoku says, way to go; provided chloroquine and mosquito-nets manufacturers are on board and will not seek to sabotage the effort. After-all, it is a capitalist world and money talks; so they must hawkishly guard against anything that will drastically affect their bottom-line!
In a type of story usually synonymous with and coming out of Hollywood movie studios, a science fiction has come alive! Mosquitoes have been re-engineered and genetically modified to serve as a vector of vaccines instead of malaria? Wonders of science, one may say, but in this our rapidly evolving world, everything is possible. By this huge scientific leap for mankind, malaria dispensing parasitic mosquitoes will henceforth turn a new leaf and become a friendly vaccine-dispensing agent instead. Thereafter, whenever mosquitoes bite you, instead of dumping the usual malaria parasite in your body, it will deposit anti-malaria vaccine? Wonderful, really! In a breakthrough scientific experiment conducted in Europe, mosquitoes were adapted as flying needles, delivering vaccine of live malaria parasites through their bites; which in turn serve as anecdote to malaria. Thereafter, anyone bitten by the doctored mosquito, developed immunity to future malaria while non-vaccinated individuals still fell victims to malaria? Icheoku says, with nearly one million people killed each year by malaria, mostly children under the age of 5 in Africa; this breakthrough is what the world has been waiting for to answer the scourge of malaria. Malaria starts when an infected mosquito bites a person and injects immature malaria parasites into the skin which then travels to the liver where they mature and multiply. From there, they enter the bloodstream and attack red blood cells, at which stage the victim falls sick. People sometimes develop immunity to malaria by frequent exposures to the parasite over a period of time. The drug chloroquine is also effective against malaria parasites! This breakthrough study was researched in a laboratory at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands; funded by two foundations and a French government grant. Hopefully, before too long, the result will be commercially available to help in the fight against the killer disease, malaria. Icheoku says, way to go; provided chloroquine and mosquito-nets manufacturers are on board and will not seek to sabotage the effort. After-all, it is a capitalist world and money talks; so they must hawkishly guard against anything that will drastically affect their bottom-line!
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