Zika virus has made it’s way to the U.S. after starting out in Central and South America. Mosquitoes are the carriers of the virus which causes a problem for many that live in the Southeast United States and specifically in Miami Florida since there is an abundance of the nasty blood suckers there. Scientist however may have found a way to stop the spread of this disease a new genetically modified mosquito called OX513A which I believe is the way that we will be to stop the spread Zika virus and here is why. Zika virus is an illness that is spread through mosquitos when they bite you. Many people that are infected with Zika virus will have no or very mild symptoms. Some symptoms that you can expect from Zika are a fever, rash, as well as joint and muscle pain. This all doesn't sound too bad however if a pregnant woman contracts Zika we have problems. Pregnant women can pass Zika to their babies which causes birth defects that could result in death. OX513A is a male mosquito that has been genetically engineered in a way that when it tries to reproduce with your average wild female mosquito it messes with her ability to reproduce offspring that will survive. Without the ability to reproduce it could stop the Zika Virus dead in its tracks. The FDA is still looking into this as a viable option for mosquito control. Following the outcome of the …show more content…
First of all this is not only time that a trial run of these mutant mosquito has been done. They have done similar trails in Brazil, the Cayman Island, and Panama. All of these trails have resulted in high success rates in the Cayman Island they were able to reduce the disease carrying mosquitos by 80% and in Brazil by up to 95% . In Brazil they have even agreed to open a breeding factory to produce OX513A with the promise of being able to save 300,000 people. If we could get these kind of results in the U.S. this could be