Can mosquitoes be completely eliminated?

Recently, the National People's Congress representatives put forward the "Suggestions on Comprehensive Mosquito Eradication". In the reply, the National Health Commission mentioned that it will carry out the patriotic health campaign in depth and comprehensively improve the living environment. Strengthen the research on vector control technology, promote control work with innovative technology, explore environmentally friendly, green, sustainable, and economical mosquito control technology, and reduce the mosquito density level.

However, I personally think that it is not realistic to completely eliminate mosquitoes, and the most cutting-edge technology has never succeeded in this matter. Why do I say that? Let's talk about it today!

01. Comprehensive mosquito eradication, don’t overestimate yourself

Mosquitoes are indeed annoying. Not only do they buzz and make noise, but they also bite people. This is the intuitive feeling of many people about mosquitoes. Of course, for public health professionals, they may be more concerned about the infectious diseases brought by mosquitoes.

For example, a typical example is malaria, which causes a large number of infections and deaths every year. Ms. Tu Youyou also won the Nobel Prize for her research on artemisinin, a drug that can treat malaria.

In fact, humans have always wanted to eliminate mosquitoes. In the early days, scientists tried to use chemical drugs to exterminate mosquitoes, but you know the result, it was useless. The floral water and mosquito coils that we use in our daily lives have not eliminated mosquitoes from the earth.

Later, with the development of biotechnology, especially gene editing technology, scientists tried to use gene editing to modify mosquitoes. For example, by modifying the genes of mosquitoes, the focus was on destroying the mosquito's X chromosome, so that after the modification, the mosquitoes could only give birth to male mosquitoes, etc. Field experiments were also conducted, that is, these sterilized mosquitoes were released in reality.

For example, in 2009, 3.3 million genetically modified male mosquitoes were released on a trial basis in Grand Cayman.

Another large-scale release of GM mosquitoes took place in Brazil in 2011.

The initial effect was indeed obvious. For example, in a short period of time, the mosquito population dropped by 80-95%.

But as time goes by, mosquitoes are found to be coming back. One reason is that other mosquito species migrated here, and the other reason is that mosquitoes that were thought to have been eradicated have also made a comeback. This shows that it is too difficult to eradicate mosquitoes.

In fact, the mosquito eradication attempts currently being made by some technology companies are often aimed at very individual mosquitoes. There are more than 3,500 species of mosquitoes worldwide, and most of them do not bite humans. As a flying insect, they can also spread in water, so basically other mosquitoes will quickly fill the gap.

02. Mosquitoes are not the main pest in my country

Researchers in each field will emphasize the importance of their own field. For example, if you look at researchers on cardiovascular disease, it seems that everyone is at high risk. After all, cardiovascular disease is the main cause of death in my country, even more than cancer. But if you look at research on Alzheimer's disease, you will find that this disease accounts for 25% of the elderly over 80 years old, which seriously affects personal health. If you pay attention to myopia, you will find that more than one-third of the population in the country is myopic; if you understand obesity, nearly half of adults are obese.

Every disease is scary, but with limited investment and funding, there must be a trade-off.

Mosquitoes are important vectors of infectious diseases, but they are not the main health threat in our country. In fact, for our country's public health, we should devote our energy to areas that need more attention.

Although some people would say that mosquitoes are the main animal causing human deaths in the world, this is mainly concentrated in tropical and subtropical countries. For China, in 2019, a total of 10,244,507 cases of legal infectious diseases were reported nationwide, of which 79,642 cases were from natural epidemic sources and insect-borne infectious diseases , accounting for less than 1%.

03. Gradually promote development

Of course, this does not mean that mosquitoes should not be controlled at all, but rather that we should proceed in an orderly manner and not always raise the slogan of eliminating mosquitoes. When the four pests were eradicated, the whole nation worked hard, but they were not completely eradicated.

For mosquitoes, the main prevention and control is still to address the level of hygiene, which is the key.

Mosquito breeding grounds are an important factor. For example, urban and rural garbage, sewage, toilets and other places are important breeding grounds for mosquitoes. The key point is: water.

For example, Singapore is located in the tropics, which is an important outbreak area for diseases such as dengue fever, so Singapore has very strong protection against mosquitoes.

If a household fails to effectively eliminate mosquitoes, it will not only be fined but may even be subject to imprisonment.

However, in 2020, due to the epidemic, Singapore's public health was not well prepared and soon an outbreak of dengue fever broke out. The dengue virus that broke out belonged to type 3. This type of virus has not been the mainstream dengue type in Singapore for at least 30 years, and as a result, locals found it difficult to deal with this new variant virus strain.

Therefore, it is not realistic to eliminate mosquitoes. It may be more appropriate to reduce mosquito breeding grounds and gradually control the damage caused by mosquitoes.