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ICMR calls for more studies on plan to use bugged mosquitoes
“ICMR has asked for more studies to be done in the laboratory to see how well it works before these bugged mosquitoes are released into the community,” a central government official aware of the matter said, requesting anonymity. “Community trials come at a later stage; first it has to be well established in the lab.”
It may take longer for the government’s ambitious project of controlling vector-borne diseases such as dengue and chikungunya through releasing bugged mosquitoes that prevent virus replication in endemic areas, as the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has sought more virus challenge studies to be done from one of its institutes to establish more effectively that the process would work, according to people familiar with the matter.
“ICMR has asked for more studies to be done in the laboratory to see how well it works before these bugged mosquitoes are released into the community,” a central government official aware of the matter said, requesting anonymity. “Community trials come at a later stage; first it has to be well established in the lab.”
Dengue is a huge public health concern in many parts of the world, including India, and vector-control measures aren’t much effective if they do not start well before the onset of rainy season.
ICMR’s Pondicherry-based Vector Control Research Centre (VCRC) is working on a research project where it developed two colonies of Aedes aegypti (the mosquito that hosts the dengue virus), infected with wMel and wAlbB Wolbachia strains called Ae. aegypti (Pud).
Evidence so far suggests the infected mosquitoes with the wolbachia strains are less susceptible than wild mosquitoes to dengue virus infection.
“The data available so far show that the strategy works but we are currently in the process of conducting more lab-based experiments to establish with more authority that the bug that is artificially lodged in a mosquito stops virus replication,” said Ashwani Kumar, director, ICMR-VCRC.
There was no question of releasing the bugged mosquitoes in the wild as it would require government approvals at the highest level, he added.
“No permissions have been granted as yet in this regard. This will be a long-drawn process as we will go back to the secretary of the department of health research with our trial results after a few months after the results are out,” said Kumar. “The secretary, who is also director general ICMR, will have to then constitute a high-level committee that will largely comprise external experts to review the trial data, and take a decision.”
Even if the permission is granted for community-based trials, it has to be done as a pilot project as the process would require releasing a batch every week for at least six months, he added.
In 2017, India inked a pact with Australia for technology transfer as the method has been successful in at least five countries, including Australia.
