Ethical implications of fighting malaria with CRISPR/Cas9

The burden of vector-borne diseases In 2014, WHO dedicated its World Health Day to vector-borne diseases as they account for more than 17% of all infectious diseases, causing more than 1 million deaths annually, with a high economic impact.1 About half a million people with Dengue fever are hospital...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMJ global health 2017-08, Vol.2 (3), p.e000396-e000396
Main Authors: Patrão Neves, Maria, Druml, Christiane
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biodiversity
Bioethics
CRISPR
Dengue fever
Ecosystems
Ethics
Genes
Genetic disorders
Genetic engineering
Genomes
Global health
Guillain-Barre syndrome
Infectious diseases
Malaria
Mosquitoes
Public health
Science
Tropical diseases
Vectors (Biology)
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Summary:The burden of vector-borne diseases In 2014, WHO dedicated its World Health Day to vector-borne diseases as they account for more than 17% of all infectious diseases, causing more than 1 million deaths annually, with a high economic impact.1 About half a million people with Dengue fever are hospitalised each year, while Zika, responsible for an unprecedented rise in the number of children born with congenital brain abnormalities, and also triggering Guillain-Barré syndrome (a neurological disorder that can lead to paralysis and death), was estimated to cost US$ 3.5 billion globally in 2016, due to direct costs, lost productivity, deaths and avoidance measures.2 Insects, particularly mosquitoes, can transmit devastating diseases like malaria, West Nile fever, Dengue fever, yellow fever, trypanosomiasis, Chikungunya and Zika. There are approximately 214 million cases of malaria worldwide, mostly in Africa, affecting vulnerable groups such as children, pregnant women, travellers and migrants, with an estimated 438 000 deaths per year.3 Climate change will tend to worsen these numbers. None of the many past and present efforts to fight the disease have succeeded so far, but recent advances in genetic engineering, namely CRISPR/Cas9 (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/Cas9), a system which can target specific stretches of DNA and edit genomes at precise locations (working like a molecular scissors), provide new hope.4 CRISPR/Cas9 is a new and versatile technology for altering genes. Promotion of public health The impact on human health is a major concern in the ethical evaluation of new biotechnologies.
ISSN:2059-7908
2059-7908
DOI:10.1136/bmjgh-2017-000396