New drug dispenser may turn human beings into weapons against mosquitos | Hacker News Reader

New drug dispenser may turn human beings into weapons against mosquitos

economist.com

81 pointsjohnny31331 comments

In srilanka, an innovative way to fight malaria, was print newspapers with mosquito repellant mixed.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-newspaper-t...

worth a read!

There's a "black, white, and read all over" joke in there somewhere, I just can't find it.

Giving this to livestock would also be pretty deadly to mosquitoes. Using cows and pigs to fight malaria is not a half-bad idea.

What if the effect of this approach is not eradication of mosquitoes but evolution, though? Mosquitos evolving to avoid livestock would need to compensate by feeding more somewhere else. That somewhere might be humans.

Or they might just die. Evolution doesn't give guarantees.

Deadly to mosquitoes, but depending on where you are, it could be a lot less deadly to malaria mosquitoes. Just going by Wikipedia[0] here:

> One important behavioral factor is the degree to which an Anopheles species prefers to feed on humans (anthropophily) or animals such as cattle or birds. Anthropophilic Anopheles are more likely to transmit the malaria parasites from one person to another. Most Anopheles mosquitoes are not exclusively anthropophilic or zoophilic. However, the primary malaria vectors in Africa, A. gambiae and A. funestus, are strongly anthropophilic and, consequently, are two of the most efficient malaria vectors in the world.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anopheles#Preferred_sources_fo...

How about placing in our blood flow a CRISPR that embeds into mosquitoes' DNA something that makes all their offspring sterile after four generations? For three generations they should be fertile thus moving genes around.

A similar strategy is already in use.

http://www.oxitec.com/our-solution/technology/the-science/

http://www.straitstimes.com/world/americas/brazil-to-use-fac...

It doesn't use CRISPR or have the amazing generational sterility though.

doesn't this cause a problem similar to the "superbugs" epidemic? i.e., the population of malaria-carrying insects takes a big hit, but then the only ones left are the ones who have adapted to survive (found a new food source) and the population builds back up?

If the mosquitoes that are left no longer prefer the taste of human blood, this would be a huge win in the fight against malaria.

Single celled organisms evolve a lot faster than multi cell organisms. So, one long timescales it would be a problem, but solutions that only work for 100 years are still useful.

Nonetheless drug resistant fleas are a problem, so much so that the most effective treatment for your pets varies regionally.

There are new compounds being used in the veterinary world that may be better options. Fluralaner, for example, appears to have few side effects and remains in effective concentrations to kill fleas and ticks for over 3 months in dogs. I wouldn't be surprised to see some of these drugs being used to cure children of headlice in the near future.

Would this be a human equivalent of the flea and tick medicine we give to our pets?

It's interesting that ivermectin kills mosquitos. We've always used it for intestinal worms. It is a marvelous compound.

Ivermectin, and a lot of other drugs in the class of macrocyclic lactones, are considered "endectocides" in that they kill nematodes (endoparasites) and insects (ectoparasites). I don't understand why they aren't studying moxidectin, a related compound which persists in the body at effective concentrations for a month or more.

Wouldn't it be possible to make clothes filled with the bad blood which are attractive to mosquitos? Maybe using diseased's skin or anything mosquitos want to sting (and keep the bad blood slowly "pumping" using sun heat).

rip

"Oh my god, are you bleeding?"

"No...no, it's just my shirt."

To say nothing about how it would deal with a washing machine...

Is it just me, or does that star-shaped thing look absolutely terrifying? I really don't want that in my stomach. I'd much rather take daily (or even bi-daily) pills, or even some sort of slow release injection.

Just you, or just anyone who reads the article. It's soft and flexible. More importantly a consumer, you'd swallow an ordinarily sized gelatin pill.

In the few minutes as the gelatin dissolved, that star would unfurl. In a few weeks, that too would dissolve.

People are really bad at taking pills on a schedule. This seems like a novel solution.

I thought it was one of the more interesting parts of the article! Deploying a multi-week dose of anything in a single pill seems like a fantastic tool.

I agree, they'll have a problem there! Have it unfurl into a lucky clover shape or something.

Great! Let's give a neurotoxin to people en mass so they don't get Zika.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivermectin

From the same Wikipedia article:

"The wholesale cost in the developing world is about US$0.12 for a course of treatment. In the United States it costs $25–50."

This title is clickbait.

Thanks, we've updated the HN headline.

game theory though

oh yeah, that game theory. mmm. I see what you mean.

sorry, was too lazy to explain:

If only 60% of my village needs to take the drugs, nobody really wants to be it.

Just give money to the people who take the drug and can prove that they took it consistently (urine tests?)

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