Why I study the most dangerous animal on earth -- mosquitoes | Fredros Okumu

Translator: Solveig Vendelbo Reviewer: Jette Thrane

I guess because I'm from Tanzania

Da Tanzania er mit hjemland

I have a responsibility to welcome all of you once again.

bør jeg byde Jer velkommen igen.

Thank you for coming.

Tak, fordi I kom.

So, first of all, before we start,

Før vi begynder -

how many of you in the audience

hvor mange af jer

have been in the past a victim of this bug here?

har været ofre for insektet her?

We apologize on behalf of all the mosquito catchers.

Undskyld på vegne af alle myggefangere.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

Ladies and gentlemen,

Mine damer og herrer,

imagine getting seven infectious mosquito bites every day.

forestil jer at blive bidt af syv inficerede myg om dagen.

That's 2,555 infectious bites every year.

Det er 2.555 inficerede myggebid årligt.

When I was in college, I moved to the Kilombero River valley

Da jeg gik på universitetet, flyttede jeg til Kilombero floddalen

in the southeastern part of Tanzania.

i den sydøstlige del af Tanzania.

This is historically one of the most malarious zones

Det var historisk et af de mest malariainficerede områder

in the world at that time.

i verden dengang.

Life here was difficult.

Livet var svært der.

In its later stages

I de sene stadier

malaria manifested with extreme seizures locally known as degedege.

viser malaria sig som ekstreme anfald, der lokalt kaldes "degedege".

It's killed both women and men, adults and children,

Det har dræbt både kvinder og mænd, voksne og børn,

without mercy.

uden nåde.

My home institution, Ifakara Health Institute,

Min institution, Ifakara Health Institute,

began in this valley in the 1950s

blev grundlagt i denne dal i 1950'erne

to address priority health needs for the local communities.

for at afhjælpe presserende helbredsbehov i lokalsamfundene.

In fact, the name Ifakara refers to a place you go to die,

Faktisk er "Ifakara" navnet på et sted, hvor man går hen for at dø,

which is a reflection of what life used to be here

og det afspejler, hvordan livet plejede at være her

in the days before organized public health care.

i dagene før et organiseret offentligt sundhedsvæsen.

When I first moved here,

Da jeg flyttede hertil

my primary role was to estimate

var min primære rolle at anslå,

how much malaria transmission was going on across the villages

hvor ofte malaria blev overført mellem landsbyerne,

and which mosquitoes were transmitting the disease.

og hvilke myg, der bar sygdommen.

So my colleague and myself came

Min kollega og jeg rejste

30 kilometers south of Ifakara town across the river.

30 km syd for Ifakara by, over floden.

Every evening we went into the villages with flashlights and siphons.

Hver aften tog vi ind til landsbyerne med lommelygter og hæverter.

We rolled up our trousers,

Vi rullede buksebenene op

and waited for mosquitoes that were coming to bite us

og ventede på de myg, der kom for at bide os,

so we could collect them

så vi kunne indsamle dem

to check if they were carrying malaria.

for at se, om de var malariabærere.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

My colleague and myself selected a household,

Min kollega og jeg udvalgte et hus.

and we started inside and outside, swapping positions every half hour.

Vi var både inde og ude og byttede position hver halve time

And we did this for 12 hours every night for 24 consecutive nights.

Dét gjorde vi i 12 timer hver nat 24 nætter i træk.

We slept for four hours every morning

Vi sov fire timer hver morgen,

and worked the rest of the day,

og arbejdede resten af dagen

sorting mosquitoes, identifying them and chopping off their heads

med at sortere myg, bestemme dem og kappe hovederne af dem,

so they could be analyzed in the lab

så laboratoriet kunne analysere dem

to check if they were carrying malaria parasites

for tegn på, at de bar malariaparasitter

in their blood mouthparts.

i munddelene.

This way we were able to not only know how much malaria was going on here

Herved fandt vi ikke bare ud af, hvor udbredt malaria var,

but also which mosquitoes were carrying this malaria.

men også hvilke myg, der bar malariaen.

We were also able to know

Vi fandt også ud af,

whether malaria was mostly inside houses or outside houses.

om malariaen mest var inden for eller uden for husene.

Today, ladies and gentlemen, I still catch mosquitoes for a living.

Mine damer og herrer, jeg lever stadig af at fange myg.

But I do this mostly to improve people's lives and well-being.

Jeg gør det mest for at forbedre folks tilværelse

This has been called by some people the most dangerous animal on earth --

Nogen kalder den verdens farligste dyr

which unfortunately is true.

hvilket desværre er sandt.

But what do we really know about mosquitoes?

Men hvad ved vi egentlig om myg?

It turns out we actually know very little.

Det viser sig at være meget lidt.

Consider the fact that at the moment our best practice against malaria

Det bedste værn vi vi øjeblikket har mod malaria

are bednets -- insecticide treated bednets.

er giftbehandlede sengenet.

We know now that across Africa

Vi ved nu, at der i hele Afrika

you have widespread resistance to insecticides.

er udbredt resistens mod insektgifte.

And these are the same insecticides,

Disse insektgifte,

the pyrethroid class, that are put on these bednets.

af typen "pyrethroider", bruges på sengenettene.

We know now that these bednets protect you from bites

Vi ved nu, at sengenettene beskytter mod bid,

but only minimally kill the mosquitoes that they should.

men kun dræber en brøkdel af de myg, de burde.

What it means is that we've got to do more to be able to get to zero.

Det betyder, at vi skal gøre mere for at nå nulpunktet

And that's part of our duty.

Det er vores ansvar.

At Ifakara Health Institute

På Ifakara Health Institute

we focus very much on the biology of the mosquito,

fokuserer vi på myggens biologi

and we try to do this so we can identify new opportunities.

for at finde nye muligheder.

A new approach.

Nye tilgange.

New ways to try and get new options

Nye måder at udvikle nye løsninger,

that we can use together with things such as bednets

som f.eks. kan bruges sammen med sengenettene

to be able to get to zero.

for at nå til nul.

And I'm going to share with you a few examples

Jeg viser et par eksempler på

of the things that my colleagues and myself do.

ting, mine kolleger og jeg arbejder med.

Take this, for example.

For eksempel:

Mosquitoes breed in small pools of water.

Myg yngler i små vandpytter,

Not all of them are easy to find --

som er svære at finde -

they can be scattered across villages,

de kan være spredt i landsbyerne,

they can be as small as hoofprints.

og kan være så små som hovspor.

They can be behind your house or far from your house.

De kan være lige bag dit hus, eller langt derfra.

And so, if you wanted to control mosquito larvae,

Hvis man vil kontrollere antallet af myggelarver,

it can actually be quite difficult to get them.

kan det være temmelig svært at finde dem.

What my colleagues and I have decided to do

Det, mine kolleger og jeg vil gøre,

is to think about what if we used mosquitoes themselves

er et forsøg på at bruge myggene

to carry the insecticides from a place of our choice

til at bære insektgiftene fra et bestemt sted

to their own breeding habitats

til deres ynglepladser

so that whichever eggs they lay there shall not survive.

så æggene ikke overlever.

This is Dickson Lwetoijera.

Dette er Dickson Lwetoijera.

This is my colleague who runs this show at Ifakara.

Han er min kollega, der styrer dette tiltag i Ifakara.

And he has demonstrated cleverly that you can actually get mosquitoes

Han har vist hvordan man lokker myggene

to come to the place where they normally come to get blood

til det sted de normalt suger blod

to pick up a dose of sterilants or insecticide,

Her får de en dosis sterilisation eller gift,

carry this back to their own breeding habitat

som bæres med retur til ynglestedet

and kill all their progeny.

og dræber afkommet.

And we have demonstrated that you can do this

Vi har vist, at det fungerer

and crush populations very, very rapidly.

og dræber bestande meget hurtigt.

This is beautiful.

Det er smukt.

This is our mosquito city.

Dette er vores mygge-by.

It is the largest mosquito farm

Det er den største myggefarm

available in the world for malaria research.

i verden, til brug for malariaforskning.

Here we have large-scale self-sustaining colonies of malaria mosquitoes

Her har vi store selvbærende kolonier af malariamyg

that we rear in these facilities.

som vi opretholder.

Of course, they are disease-free.

De er naturligvis ikke smittebærere.

But what these systems allow us to do

De tillader os at

is to introduce new tools and test them immediately,

afprøve nye metoder og øjeblikkeligt teste dem,

very quickly,

hurtigt,

and see if we can crush these populations or control them in some way.

og se, om vi kan dræbe eller kontrollere bestandene.

And my colleagues have demonstrated

Mine kolleger har påvist,

that if you just put two or three positions

at hvis vi blot har to-tre steder,

where mosquitoes can go pick up these lethal substances,

hvorfra myggene kan hente disse giftige væsker,

we can crush these colonies in just three months.

så kan vi dræbe kolonierne på kun tre måneder.

That's autodissemination, as we call it.

Vi kalder det "autodisseminering".

But what if we could use

Men tænk, hvis vi kunne bruge

the mosquitoes' sexual behavior

myggenes forplantning

to also control them?

til at kontrollere dem?

So, first of all I would like to tell you

Først må jeg fortælle,

that actually mosquitoes mate in what we call swarms.

at myg normalt yngler i sværme.

Male mosquitoes usually congregate

Han-myg samles normalt

in clusters around the horizon, usually after sunset.

gruppevis i horisonten efter solnedgang.

The males go there for a dance,

Hannerne danser

the females fly into that dance

og hunnerne flyver ind i dansen

and select a male mosquito of their choice,

og vælger en han-myg,

usually the best-looking male in their view.

som regel ham, de synes er flottest.

They clump together and fall down onto the floor.

De klumper sig sammen og falder til jorden.

If you watch this, it's beautiful.

Hvis man ser dette, er det smukt.

It's a fantastic phenomenon.

Det er et fantastisk fænomen.

This is where our mosquito-catching work gets really interesting.

Her bliver vores mygge-indsamling spændende.

What we have seen, when we go swarm hunting in the villages,

Når vi går på rov i sumpe ved landsbyerne ser vi,

is that these swarm locations tend to be at exactly the same location

at vandet ofte samler sig de samme steder

every day, every week, every month,

dagligt, ugentligt, månedligt,

year in, year out.

år efter år.

They start at exactly the same time of the evening,

Myggene begynder på det samme tidspunkt,

and they are at exactly the same locations.

på de samme steder.

What does this tell us?

Hvad betyder det?

It means that if we can map all these locations across villages,

Det betyder, at hvis vi kortlægger disse steder i landsbyerne,

we could actually

kan vi faktisk

crush these populations by just a single blow.

udrydde disse bestande med ét slag.

Kind of, you know, bomb-spray them or nuke them out.

Sådan, bombesprøjte eller tilintetgøre dem.

And that is what we try to do with young men and women

Det forsøger vi at gøre gennem unge mænd og kvinder

across the villages.

i landsbyerne.

We organize these crews, teach them how to identify the swarms,

Vi organiserer grupperne, lærer dem at identificere sværmene,

and spray them out.

og sprøjte dem ihjel.

My colleagues and I believe we have a new window

Mine kolleger og jeg mener, at vi har en ny mulighed

to get mosquitoes out of the valley.

for at fjerne myg fra dalen.

But perhaps the fact that mosquitoes eat blood, human blood,

Men det, at myg suger menneskeblod

is the reason they are the most dangerous animal on earth.

gør dem til verdens farligste dyr.

But think about it this way --

Der foregår således:

mosquitoes actually smell you.

Myg kan lugte dig.

And they have developed

De har udviklet

incredible sensory organs.

utrolige sanseorganer.

They can smell from as far sometimes as 100 meters away.

De kan lugte op til 100m.

And when they get closer,

Og når de nærmer sig,

they can even tell the difference between two family members.

kan de kende forskel på to familiemedlemmer.

They know who you are based on what you produce

De ved hvem du er, baseret på det, du udskiller

from your breath, skin, sweat and body odor.

med din ånde, hud, sved og lugt.

What we have done at Ifakara

I Ifakara har vi

is to identify what it is in your skin, your body, your sweat or your breath

fundet ud af hvad det er ved din hud, krop, sved eller ånde,

that these mosquitoes like.

som myggene synes om.

Once we identified these substances, we created a concoction,

Da vi havde fundet ud af det, blandede vi en væske,

kind of a mixture, a blend of synthetic substances

en blanding af kunstige stoffer

that are reminiscent of what you produce from your body.

som minder om det, din krop udskiller.

And we made a synthetic blend

Vi lavede en syntetisk blanding,

that was attracting three to five times more mosquitoes than a human being.

der tiltrak 3-5 gange flere myg, end mennesker gør.

What can you do with this?

Hvad kan dette bruges til?

You put in a trap, lure a lot of mosquitoes and you kill them, right?

Man sætter en fælde, lokker myg til, og dræber dem.

And of course, you can also use it for surveillance.

Man kan også bruge det til overvågning.

At Ifakara

På Ifakara

we wish to expand our knowledge on the biology of the mosquito;

ønsker vi at vide mere om myggens biologi

to control many other diseases, including, of course, the malaria,

for at kontrollere de sygdomme foruden malaria,

but also those other diseases that mosquitoes transmit

som myg er bærere af.

like dengue, Chikungunya and Zika virus.

For eksempel dengue feber, chikungunya og zika virus.

And this is why my colleagues, for example --

Derfor har mine kolleger f.eks.

we have looked at the fact

set på det faktum

that some mosquitoes like to bite you on the leg region.

at nogle myg helst stikker i benene.

And we've now created these mosquito repellent sandals

Vi har derfor udviklet sandaler med myggebalsam,

that tourists and locals can wear when they're coming.

som turister og lokale kan have på.

And you don't get bitten --

Så bliver man ikke bidt,

this gives you 'round the clock protection

men har konstant beskyttelse,

until the time you go under your bednet.

indtil du kravler under dit sengenet.

(Applause)

(Klapsalve)

My love-hate relationship with mosquitoes continues.

Mit had-kærlighedsforhold til myg fortsætter.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

And it's going to go a long way, I can see.

Og det vil sandsynligvis fortsætte længe endnu.

But that's OK.

Det er OK.

WHO has set a goal of 2030 to eliminate malaria from 35 countries.

Verdenssundhedsorganisationen (WHO) har som mål at udrydde malaria i 35 lande.

The African Union has set a goal

Den afrikanske Union har som mål

of 2030 to eliminate malaria from the continent.

at udslette malaria fra kontinentet inden 2013.

At Ifakara we are firmly behind these goals.

På Ifakara står vi bag disse målsætninger.

And we've put together a cohort of young scientists,

Vi har samlet en gruppe unge forskere,

male and female,

mænd og kvinder,

who are champions,

som kæmper for målene,

who are interested in coming together to make this vision come true.

og som ønsker at samarbejde for at nå dem.

They do what they can

De gør, hvad de kan

to make it work.

for at få det til at lykkes.

And we are supporting them.

Og vi støtter dem.

We are here to make sure that these dreams come true.

Vi er her for at sikre, at disse drømme opfyldes.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Mine damer og herrer,

even if it doesn't happen in our lifetime,

selv om det ikke sker i vores levetid,

even if it doesn't happen

selv om det ikke sker

before you and me go away,

før du og jeg går bort,

I believe that your child and my child

er jeg sikker på at vore børn

shall inherit a world free of malaria transmitting mosquitoes

arver en verden fri for malariabærende myg

and free of malaria.

og fri for malaria.

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.

Mange tak, mine damer og herrer.

(Applause)

(Klapsalve)

Thank you.

Mange tak.

Kelo Kubu: OK, Fredros.

Kelo Kubu: Godt, Fredros.

Let's talk about CRISPR for a bit.

Lad os tale om CRISPR et øjeblik.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

It's taken the world by storm,

Det har taget verden med storm,

it promises to do amazing things.

og lover at udrette utrolige ting.

What do you think of scientists using CRISPR to kill off mosquitoes?

Hvad synes du om, at forskere bruger CRISPR til at dræbe myg?

Fredros Okumu: To answer this question, let's start from what the problem is.

Fredros Okumu: Lad os begynde med, hvad problemet er.

First of all, we're talking about a disease that still kills --

For det første taler vi om en sygdom, der stadig dræber;

according to the latest figures we have from WHO --

det nyeste tal fra Verdenssudhedsorganisationen er

429,000 people.

429.000 mennesker.

Most of these are African children.

De fleste er afrikanske børn.

Of course, we've made progress,

Vi har selvfølgelig gjort fremskridt,

there are countries that have achieved

der er lande, der har opnået

up to 50-60 percent reduction in malaria burden.

50-60% mindre malaria.

But we still have to do more to get to zero.

Men vi er nødt til at gøre mere for at nå til nul.

There is already proof of principle

Man har allerede bevist princippet bag teknikker

that gene-editing techniques, such as CRISPR,

for genetiske ændringer - såsom CRISPR -

can be used effectively

og deres brug til effektivt

to transform mosquitoes so that either they do not transmit malaria --

at ændre myg, så de enten ikke bærer malaria -

we call this population alteration --

hvilket kaldes populationsændringer -

or that they no longer exist,

eller udryddes,

population suppression.

kaldet populationshæmning.

This is already proven in the lab.

Dette er bevist i laboratorier.

There is also modeling work

Der er også modeller,

that has demonstrated that even if you were to release

der viser, at selv om man udsætter

just a small number of these genetically modified mosquitoes,

bare et lille antal genetisk ændrede myg,

that you can actually achieve elimination very, very quickly.

så vil man meget hurtigt opnå udslettelse.

So, CRISPR and tools like this offer us some real opportunities --

Redskaber som CRISPR er reelle muligheder

real-life opportunities to have high-impact interventions

- gode muligheder for meget virksomme indsatser -

that we can use in addition to what we have now

som kan bruges i tilgift til vores andre redskaber

to eventually go to zero.

for at nå til nul.

This is important.

Det er vigtigt.

Now, of course people always ask us --

Folk spørger os altid -

which is a common question,

det er et almindeligt spørgsmål,

I guess you're going to ask this as well --

så du stiller det sikkert også -

"What happens if you eliminate mosquitoes?"

"Hvad så, hvis vi udsletter myg?"

KK: I won't ask then, you answer.

KK: Så spørger jeg ikke, svar bare.

FO: OK. In respect to this, I would just like to remind my colleagues

FO: OK. Jeg vil blot minde mine kolleger om,

that we have 3,500 mosquito species in this world.

at vi har 3.500 myggearter i verden.

Maybe more than that.

Måske flere.

About 400 of these are Anophelenes,

Cirka 400 af dem er Anopheles,

and only about 70 of them have any capacity to transmit malaria.

og kun cirka 70 af disse kan bære malaria.

In Africa, we're having to deal with three or four of these as the major guys.

I Afrika skal vi håndtere 3-4 af disse,

They carry most -- like 99 percent of all the malaria we have.

som bærer cika 99% af al malaria.

If we were to go out with gene editing like CRISPR,

Hvis vi anvendte genetiske ændringer såsom CRISPR,

if we were to go out with gene drives to control malaria,

hvis vi brugte genændringer til at kontrollere malaria,

we would be going after only one or two.

ville vi kun rette det mod 1-2 arter.

I don't see a diversity problem with that.

Det ser jeg intet diversitetsproblem ved.

But that's personal view.

Det er min personlige holdning.

I think it's OK.

Det synes jeg er i orden.

And remember, by the way,

Husk, i øvrigt,

all these years we've been trying to eliminate these mosquitoes effectively

at i alle årene, hvor vi har forsøgt at udrydde disse myg

by spraying them -- our colleagues in America have sprayed with --

ved at sprøjte dem - vores kolleger i Amerika har sprøjtet dem -

really bomb-spraying these insects out of the villages.

virkelig sprøjtebombet for at fjerne dem fra landsbyerne.

In Africa we do a lot of household spraying.

I Afrika sprøjter vi mest i husholdningen.

All these are aimed solely at killing the mosquitoes.

Alt dette er for at dræbe myg.

So there's really no problem if we had a new tool.

Så det er intet problem at have et nyt redskab.

But having said that, I have to say

Alligevel må jeg sige,

we also have to be very, very responsible here.

at vi skal udvise stor ansvarlighed.

So there's the regulatory side, and we have to partner with our regulators

Der er reguleringer og vi må samarbejde med myndighederne

and make sure that everything that we do is done correctly,

og sikre, at alt bliver gjort rigtigt,

is done responsibly

ansvarligt,

and that we also have to do independent risk assessments,

og vi må foretage uafhængige risikovurderinger

to just make sure

for at sikre,

that all these processes do not fall into the wrong hands.

at alle disse processer ikke falder i de forkerte hænder.

Thank you very much.

Mange tak.

KK: Thank you.

KK: Mange tak.

(Applause)

(Klapsalve)