Genetic manipulation of vectors: A potential novel approach for control of vector-borne diseases

Kokoza et al. (1) recently reported the genetic engineering of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to express abundantly an anti-microbial immune effector molecule in the hemolymph of a vector. In the realm of vector-borne diseases, this is a very significant event with provocative implications. Vector-borne diseases, such as malaria, leishmania, trypanosomiasis, dengue, yellow fever, West Nile encephalitis, etc., are resurgent through out much of their former distributions and/or are emerging in new geographic areas. The morbidity and mortality associated with these diseases are overwhelming: billions of people are now at risk for infection, each year hundreds of millions of infections occur, resulting in millions of deaths, and the morbidity associated with vector-borne pathogen infections is inestimable [see Nakajima, H. (1996) The World Health Report (World Health Organization) at http://www.who.int/whr/1996/whr-e.htm]. In addition, these diseases impose major economic and social burdens on populations least able to afford them. The situation is bleak, and it is especially disconcerting that many of these diseases were previously controlled to some extent.