Overcoming Political Barriers to Gene Drive Deployment in Africa

Last year, I wrote about the promise of gene drives to wipe out mosquito species and end malaria.

In the time since my previous writing, gene drives have still not been used in the wild, and over 600,000 people have died of malaria. Although there are promising new developments such as malaria vaccines, there have also been some pretty bad setbacks (such as mosquitoes and parasites developing resistance to commonly used chemicals), and malaria deaths have increased slightly from a few years ago. Recent news coverage[1] has highlighted that the fight against malaria has stalled, and even reversed in some areas. Clearly, scientists and public health workers are trying hard with the tools they have, but this effort is not enough.

Gene drives have the potential to end malaria. However, this potential will remain unrealized unless they are deployed – and every day we wait, more than 1,600 people (mostly African children) die. But who should deploy them?

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/gjs3q83hA4giubaAw/will-no-one-rid-me-of-this-turbulent-pest

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