While Donald Trump dismisses public health issues like the Zika virus in Florida, the rest of the world works to find a solution to a very frightening problem. The FDA announced last week that it will allow field trials, in Florida, of a genetically modified organism (GMO) mosquito developed in England. This mosquito is engineered to kill potentially infected mosquitos and reduce the populations of the Zika-virus carrying insect.
"We're really pleased to announce the FDA finished their review and has found no significant impact of the release of our mosquito on human health or the environment," Oxitec CEO Hadyn Parry said. "This is especially timely, given the recent finding of Zika transmission by local mosquitoes in a Miami neighborhood."
OX513A is a male Aedes aegypti mosquito, the primary species that carries the Zika virus. He is genetically engineered to pass along a lethal gene to wild females that makes the females' offspring die. The gene creates a protein that interferes with cell activity, killing the mosquito before it can reach adulthood.
Oxitec believes they can reduce the population by 90 percent over 6 months, and then maintain a reduced mosquito population through small releases of the GMO mosquitos. Oxitec has deployed these mosquitos in
Brazil and Panama and the Cayman Islands.
Intrexon CEO Randal J. Kirk said Oxitec's new U.S. venture will represent a "major advance" in eradicating Zika. "It's the only proven safe, effective, environmentally sound product that can significantly achieve the reduction of the Aedes aegypti mosquito that the world so desperately needs," he said.
Not everyone greeted the prospect with such enthusiasm, however. "I am very disappointed in the FDA's decision," said Mila de Mier, a mother of three who lives near Key Haven and owns a realty company in the area. Earlier this year, de Mier launched an online petition opposing the Key Haven trial that garnered 160,000 signatures.
According to NPR, even if the entire Aedes aegypti were wiped out by a new species, this would not necessarily have the profound impact on our ecosystem that some fear.
"It's sad the passenger pigeons were lost," says Andrew Read, a biologist and entomologist who specializes in the ecology and evolutionary genetics of infectious disease at Pennsylvania State University. "But did ecosystems collapse? No. Did anything bad happen? We just lost a pigeon, that's a shame."
"If we took out Aedes aegypti, that would be something," he adds. "Nothing good comes from them, just that people get really sick."
Fonseca feels similarly. "I'm not worried about eradicating an invasive mosquito. It's an urban species that specializes on feeding on people," she says. "The result of removing them is health to humans and more people."
Hopefully both the scientists and the method of controlling these mosquitoes works. There are millions of young lives at stake.