The Telegraph: ‘We don’t want to be guinea pigs’: how one African community is fighting genetically modified mosquitoes
“…Researchers from the Target Malaria consortium, a not-for-profit research group funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and various research institutions, have developed a mosquito in their laboratory that can kill off its own species by spreading a faulty gene. If it works in the wild, the technology — called gene drive — could help eliminate malaria where decades of efforts involving bed nets, repellents, and insecticides have failed. This isn’t the first experiment Burkinabes have witnessed in the fight against one of Africa’s leading killers but it is certainly one of the most radical. … But the move towards genetic modification has unleashed unprecedented opposition in the landlocked West African country. In the summer of 2018, more than 1,000 people marched in the capital Ouagadougou against the use of genetically-modified organisms in the country, including the GM mosquitoes…” (Pujol-Mazzini/Zombre, 10/8).