Deploy Nuclear Technology To Fight Mosquitoes, Minister Urges African Countries

The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu has urged African countries to deploy nuclear technology in eradicating malaria from the continent.

Onu stated this at the African Union (AU) meeting on science, technology, and innovation held in Addis Ababa at the weekend.

“The eradication of malaria is not something that can be achieved by either a single country or even a region in Africa.

“If this is not done, any success achieved can be reversed as people who are sick of malaria travel from one country to another, ” he said.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) approximately half of the world’s population is at risk of malaria and around half a million people die of the disease each year. Ninety percent of these deaths occur in Africa, where one child dies from malaria every minute.

A research carried out by THE WHISTLER revealed that Head of the Insect Pest Control Laboratory operated jointly by the IAEA and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) 

Marc Vreysen, said that a nuclear technique was successfully used to control the spread of various pests, in the future and contribute to combatting mosquitoes and the diseases they carry. 

He said these tiny insects are responsible for spreading malaria and dengue that wreak havoc over large parts of the world, causing sickness and death.

“Mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit are already a severe problem; the problem is becoming worse due to globalization and climate change, so there’s an increasing interest among our Member States in the development and use of nuclear technologies against mosquitoes.”

Vreysen added that the method of using nuclear technologies, known as the sterile insect technique (SIT) could provide a future option for mosquito control.

“SIT is a very robust technology. It is proven that it can work for various major pests, such as fruit and tsetse flies, screwworms and moths, for over 50 years and in many parts of the world,” Vreysen said.

According to him, SIT uses radiation to sterilize male flies, which are mass-produced in special rearing facilities. Large numbers of sterile males are then released into a target area, where they mate with wild females.

Vreysen explained that this technology is cost-effective and environmentally-friendly technique, used in more than 20 countries worldwide, which is particularly successful in areas with isolated insect populations, where wild fertile females cannot fly in from neighbouring regions to re-establish insect populations.

The minister added that for the eradication of malaria to be effective, the solution must have a continental-wide application, adding that the application of nuclear technology to eradicate malaria would sterilize the male Anopheles mosquitoes which will, in turn, be released to the environment to mate with the female mosquitoes.

Onu said: “This will result in a gradual but continuous reduction of the population of the female mosquitoes which are responsible for transmitting the malaria parasites.

“By continuously sterilizing the male Anopheles mosquitoes and releasing them into the environment, the population of mosquitoes will continue to decline, ultimately leading to the eradication of malaria.”

He, however, appealed to African nations to strive to rid the continent of malaria, adding that an African free of malaria will be one of the most important legacies we must bequeath our children and generations yet unborn.