Claims that locally-acquired cases of malaria in the US are because of a company releasing genetically modified mosquitoes are false. The mosquitoes released aren’t the species that carry malaria, and are male so don’t bite.
The company has released a genetically modified mosquito species that mates with local pests in order to create offspring that won’t survive until adulthood, to reduce the pest population. The species released isn’t the one that transmits malaria, and in the US, the company’s mosquitoes have so far only been released in Florida.A spokesperson for Oxitec told Full Fact there was “absolutely no truth to these claims” and that they were “scientifically impossible”.
The CDC also said there had been no locally acquired mosquito-borne malaria in the US since 2003, when eight cases were identified in Florida, so the post is right in that respect. The vast majority of malaria cases in the US are travel-related, occurring when someone has been bitten by malaria-carrying mosquitoes abroad before arriving in the US. The CDC says there are aroundThe tweet claims a company “funded by Bill Gates” released mosquitoes “to solve a problem that didn’t exist”, and that these are the “exact places” where “there’s an outbreak of malaria”.from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
A spokesperson for the foundation told us it doesn’t fund any work involving mosquito release in the United States.
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