War On Zika Virus And Yellow Fever Mosquitoes That Killed Many
Google’s health care arm Verily is in the process of releasing 20 million bacteria-filled, buzzing sterile male mosquitoes responsible for spreading Zika virus and other mosquito-borne diseases this summer in Fresno, California. It is supposed to be a good thing as it will be more of a test for fighting various mosquito born diseases and infections like Zika, Dengue, and Chikangunya. The aim of the same is to reduce the population of these deadly mosquitoes and the spread of disease.
Introduction of Verily in the field of healthcare and the precautionary steps were taken
Verily, Alphabet’s life biotech division formerly known as Google Life Sciences started the bug campaign last week on July 14 itself. The Debug Project, as it is named, is one of the biggest studies in the United States of America wherein the process of reducing the disease-carrying mosquitoes is on the way. It is, in fact, a great initiative ready to be launched worldwide and tested in the field as it is.
The basic idea behind the study is that the male mosquitoes are infected with bacteria, which does not prove any harm to the human beings. They are then left to mate with wild females with nonhatching or dead eggs. Thus, it is important to reduce the overall population of Yellow Fever Mosquito that spread such disease.
Partnerships in the field of healthcare for achieving a common goal
Trials are on in the field in collaboration with the MosquitoMate and Fresno County’s Consolidated Mosquito Abatement District (CMAD). The sole aim of these trials is to reduce the population of mosquitoes carrying Zika Virus, Yellow Fever and many other mosquito-borne diseases. Especially to reduce the population of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito which is a carrier of various serious diseases.
The enveloping and persistent mosquito species first arrived in Fresno in 2013. No cases of the deadly diseases spreading from the infection of the same have been reported so far. In fact, over the years Verily has grown rapidly and have taken up numerous projects related to healthcare technology. They have even partnered with the competent companies in order to raise funds for the future projects in the offing.
It seems the Debug Project will not be in a position to raise any kinds of revenues soon but it is surely a means of showing technical competence by Verily in the field of healthcare.
To take upon this issue, Verily will be releasing sterile male mosquitoes and letting them mate with the wild female mosquitoes. Since these sterile male mosquitoes have been infected with naturally occurring bacteria called Wolbachia hence they will not be able to hatch the eggs in the reproduction process. This way, the population of these disease-spreading mosquitoes goes down over time and does not affect the people severely.
To conclude, Google has taken a preventive and precautionary step to bring down and reduce the population of Yellow fever mosquito spreading Zika virus and related diseases. The move seems to be of better and thus must be supported by whatever means possible.
