Is this the beginning of a sci-fi film or one of the most ingenious bits of science I've come across in a long time?

這是一部科幻電影的開始，還是我長時間以來遇到的最巧妙的科學之一？

Spoiler alert.

劇透警報。

It's the latter.

答案是後者。

We all hate mosquitoes, right? And not for no reason.

我們都討厭蚊子，對嗎？

On top of being a pure nuisance with their buzzing and itchy bites, they're actually the deadliest animal to humans.

除了它們嗡嗡聲和令人發癢的叮咬外，事實上，蚊子是對人類最致命的動物。

Literally, they kill more humans than any other creature primarily through spreading disease.

從字面上看，它們比其他任何生物都更容易殺死人類，主要是通過傳播疾病。

But before we can understand why scientists would want to make more of them, we should ask ourselves the question, "Couldn't we just destroy them all?"

然而，在我們理解科學家為什麼想要製造更多蚊子之前，我們應該問自己一個問題：「難道我們不能把它們全部消滅嗎？」

Like, would it really be so bad if we killed every mosquito on Earth?

好比說，如果我們殺死地球上的每一隻蚊子，真的會那麼糟嗎？

Nature Journal actually did an analysis on this exact question and found that there wouldn't actually be a huge fallout if mosquitoes disappeared tomorrow, at least not for humans.

《自然》期刊實際上對這個問題進行了分析，發現如果明天蚊子消失了，至少對人類來說不會有巨大的影響。

And even then, very few species heavily rely on mosquitoes. The ones that do like some birds and fish would likely replace them with something else.

而即便是依賴蚊子的物種也很少，像一些鳥類和魚類，它們可能會用其他東西來替代蚊子。

And while some mosquitoes do act as pollinators, there's nothing humans rely on them exclusively for. Of course, there's like 3200 species of mosquito and only 200 of them bite humans, so it seems unfair to kill them all.

儘管一些蚊子充當授粉媒介，但人類並不完全依賴它們。當然，有大約3200種蚊子，其中只有200種會叮咬人類，因此殺光它們似乎是不公平的。

But because of the ones that do bite us, around 247 million people are infected with malaria every year.

但由於那些叮咬我們的蚊子，每年約有2.47億人感染瘧疾。

Not to mention a myriad of other diseases like Dengue and Zika.

更不用說登革熱和茲卡病毒等各種疾病了。

But while destroying mosquitoes may be a net positive for humans, one, is it really that feasible to do? And two, can we really know the ecological fallout from something of that magnitude?

但是，雖然消滅蚊子對人類可能是一個正面的結果，但首先，真的那麼可行嗎？其次，我們真的能知道這樣做的生態後果嗎？

In comes the idea to make more mosquitoes in a factory, which sounds crazy until you realize it's not.

這就是製造更多蚊子的想法，聽起來很瘋狂，直到你意識到它並不是。

You see, scientists have discovered a way to stop disease transmission from mosquitoes without the need for killing them.

科學家們已經發現了一種阻止蚊子傳播疾病的方法，而無需將它們全部殺死。

All thanks to a bacteria called Wolbachia.

這要歸功於一種叫做沃爾巴克氏菌的細菌。

Wolbachia has sort of been in the background in mosquito biology if you like, for the last 100 years, but only quite recently attracting a lot of attention.

在過去的 100 年裡，沃爾巴克氏菌一直處於蚊子生物學的背景中，但直到最近才引起人們的廣泛關注。

Some of the works that we did a number of years ago now showed that if you had Wolbachia in the mosquito that transmits viruses to people like yellow fever, Chikungunya, Dengue, the viruses couldn't grow very well in the mosquito if they had Wolbachia in them.

我們幾年前的一些研究顯示，如果蚊子體內有威爾巴克氏體，這些傳播給人類的病毒，如黃熱病、基孔肯雅熱和登革熱，將無法在蚊子體內良好生長。

This was confusing to the scientists at first, but they realized that the bacteria is likely out competing any other pathogens like the Dengue virus.

科學家們起初對此感到困惑，但他們意識到，這種細菌很可能比登革熱病毒等其他病原體更具競爭力。

So if Wolbachia is present, the virus is unable to proliferate properly and ultimately can't spread to humans.

如果存在沃爾巴克氏菌，病毒就無法正常增殖，最終也就無法傳播給人類。

And if you take some of these Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes and let them loose into the wild, they'll end up infecting other mosquitoes with Wolbachia.

如果你釋放一些帶有沃爾巴克氏菌的蚊子到野外，它們將感染其他蚊子並傳播沃爾巴克氏菌。

If an infected male mates with a non-infected female, the eggs she lays won't hatch if the female has it and the male doesn't, her eggs will hatch, but they'll all be infected with Wolbachia, and the same happens if both are infected.

如果感染的雄性與未感染的雌性交配，她產下的卵將不孵化。如果雌性感染而雄性不感染，她的卵將孵化，但所有的蚊子都將感染沃爾巴克氏菌。如果兩者都感染，情況也是一樣的。

After a few generations, the number of Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes increases rapidly.

經過幾代之後，攜帶沃爾巴克氏菌的蚊子數量迅速增加。

We've done, you know, deployments in foreign countries.

我們在外國進行過部署。

Usually our release programs last anywhere from a couple of months to maybe six months.

我們的釋放計劃通常持續幾個月到六個月不等。

And that provides the opportunity for those mosquitoes to make little wild mosquitoes and then pass Wolbachia into that wild mosquito population.

這就為這些蚊子提供了製造野生小蚊子的機會，然後把沃爾巴克氏菌傳給野生蚊子種群。

Most importantly, Dengue ue cases dropped significantly.

最重要的是，登革熱病例大幅下降。

One of the first comprehensive studies in Indonesia found the protective efficacy of the intervention was 77.1%.

印度尼西亞最早的一項綜合研究發現，干預措施的保護效力為 77.1%。

That's the equivalent of being four times less likely to develop the disease if you were in those areas.

如果你在這些地區，就相當於患病機率降低了四倍。

Now, some test sites saw results as low as 38% but that's still pretty major for the reduction of a disease.

一些測試點的結果低至 38%，但對於減少疾病來說，這仍然是一個相當大的數字。

The lower results may be because it takes longer in some communities, depending on their size and environment for Wolbachia to spread to the entire mosquito population.

結果較低的原因可能是，在一些社區，沃爾巴克氏菌需要更長的時間才能傳播到整個蚊子種群，這取決於社區的規模和環境。

However, the most recent results from the Aburra Valley Columbia, which were just released in November 2023 actually saw a decline of 95% to 97% in Dengue fever, bringing it to the lowest rate in 20 years for the region.

然而，2023 年 11 月剛剛公佈的哥倫比亞靈氣谷的最新結果顯示，登革熱發病率實際上下降了 95% 至 97%，達到了 20 年來的最低水平。

What makes this result even more profound is that the rest of the Americas actually had the second-worst year for Dengue fever since 1980.

這個結果更加深刻的原因是，實際上自1980年以來，美洲其他地區的登革熱發病情況是第二嚴重的一年。

So, while some parts of Colombia were seeing record highs of Dengue, this region where modified mosquitoes were unleashed, saw record lows.

因此，儘管哥倫比亞的某些地區登革熱病例數達到歷史新高，但釋放改良蚊子的該地區則創下了歷史新低。

This Colombia project began releasing Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes in 2015.

這個哥倫比亞計劃始於2015年釋放寄生於沃爾巴克氏菌的蚊子。

So to see a 95% reduction in dengue fever is pretty astounding.

登革熱發病率減少 95% 是非常驚人的。

And now the teams are trying to figure out how to deploy these modified mosquitoes as effectively as possible over even larger areas.

研究小組正試圖研究如何在更大的範圍內儘可能有效地部署這些改良蚊子。

Dengue is a huge problem in Brazil, as Zika has been.

登革熱在巴西是一個巨大的問題，茲卡病毒也是如此。

We are working together to produce a facility that will produce up to 100 million mosquitoes a week in Brazil so that we can deploy them over multiple Brazilian cities.

我們正在合作建造一個在巴西每週生產高達1億隻蚊子的設施，以便在巴西多個城市部署它們。

Now, you might be wondering, "Are humans being infected with the Wolbachia in these mosquitoes?"

現在，您可能會想知道，「人類是否會感染這些蚊子身上的沃爾巴克氏菌呢？」

Like, is there a larger risk of having so much of it in our environment?

就像，在我們的環境中有這麼多沃爾巴克氏菌會有更大的風險嗎？

So about 50% of all insects actually have Wolbachia.

大約 50%的昆蟲實際上都含有沃爾巴克氏菌。

I can guarantee that you and everybody that listens to this will have been bitten by what we call the common house mosquito.

我可以保證，你和所有聽過這番話的人都會被我們稱之為「普通家庭蚊子」的東西叮咬過。

That's the mosquito, that's this indescript brown mosquito that will buzz around your ears and that mosquito naturally has Wolbachia in it.

這就是蚊子，是那種棕色的蚊子，會在你的耳邊嗡嗡叫，這種蚊子天然帶有沃爾巴克氏菌。

If Wolbachia was a problem, we'd know about it.

如果沃爾巴克氏菌是個問題，我們會知道。

There's not a link between Wolbachia and any negative outcomes that anyone's been able to find.

目前沒有人能找到Wolbachia和任何負面結果之間的聯繫。

Currently, the WHO is evaluating this technology for use in other countries.

目前是該機構正在評估這項技術在其他國家的使用情況。

Of course, the scientists involved see this as a supplementary and not meant to prevent or discourage dengue vaccines in the regions that are at high risk.

當然，相關科學家認為這只是一種補充，並不是為了在高風險地區預防或阻止登革熱疫苗的接種。

But in the long run, it could end up saving hundreds of millions of people from being infected by Dengue and around 100 million people from getting sick.

但從長遠來看，它最終可以使數億人免於感染登革熱，使大約 1 億人免於患病。

It's all an amazing reminder how innovation and sometimes an unexpected approach can literally change the lives of hundreds of millions of people for the better.

這一切都令人驚歎地提醒我們，創新，有時是意想不到的方法，可以真正改變數億人的生活，讓他們的生活變得更好。

I want to send a big thanks to Doctor O'Neill for helping me to break down this incredible science.

我要向奧尼爾博士表示衷心的感謝，感謝他幫我破解了這門不可思議的科學。

Thanks so much for watching.

感謝你的收看。

If you liked it, give it a thumbs up and subscribe for more science ASAP. Peace.

如果你喜歡這部影片，請按讚指並儘速訂閱以獲取更多科學資訊。