Zika Virus and Transgenic Mosquitoes: Potentials of a Public Health Tool

Ike Val Iyioke

doi:10.18533/journal.v6i01.1082

Abstract

<p>With transgenic mosquitoes now being deployed as a major solution to the pandemic Zika virus disease, more curious questions have arisen about this public health technology. This essay reviews the philosophical considerations that presaged the development, by WHO, of the genetically modified mosquitoes. It focuses more specifically on the inter-disciplinary approach in formulating the clinical trials process. While it is still early to determine the full merits of this health intervention tool, it is nonetheless timely to examine the rich vein of form that constitutes the clinical trial protocol. I argue that the steps it suggests should be a gold standard for all clinical trial procedures including those that use human subjects and those with both direct and indirect environmental implications. Also, the early signs portend that its application could indeed be widespread. For instance, malaria and dengue fever were the original targets, but now the development of transgenic mosquito technology is deemed a potent option in the fight against Zika virus disease. In addition, this clinical trial protocol has remarkably gone beyond the four pillars of principlism to recognize the possibility that a new technology (such as GMM), can have the potential to simultaneously impact human individuals, the community and the ecosystem in tandem. In “Guidance framework for testing of genetically modified mosquito,” the WHO has set an example that calls for emulation. With the right awareness, biomedical researchers, scholars, policy makers, and students stand to benefit immensely from this reformulated approach.</p>

Highlights

In the African philosophical context where holism reigns, it comes as no surprise that these two broad issues have merged into what I will refer as bio-eco-communalism (BEC)
This chapter is a rich constellation of ideas that analyzes the blaze-trailing clinical trial GMM protocol that threads together eco-centric environmental philosophy which origin could be traced to the ancient African thought
3) By calling to mind the intimate connection, namely the inseparability between environmental and Figure 1: Meeting of GMM framework, human health, the GMM report hits at the heart of environmental/human health, and African holism. a long-nursed intuition that brings together bioethics with environmental ethics

Summary

Introduction

This essay reviews the philosophical considerations that presaged the development of genetically modified mosquitoes which was meant to fight malaria and dengue fever-carrying mosquitoes It focuses on the inter-disciplinary approach in formulating the clinical trials process. This GMM framework could be a paragon of responsible clinical trials protocol The steps it suggests should be standard practice for all clinical trial protocols including those that use human subjects and those that potentially have both direct and indirect ecological implications. This analysis is intentionally structured to concentrate only on the relevant parts of GMM framework, to sharply contrast it with another clinical trial example: the 1996 Trovan experimentation in Nigeria.. In the African philosophical context where holism reigns, it comes as no surprise that these two broad issues have merged into what I will refer as bio-eco-communalism (BEC).

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Conclusion