Fredros Okumu: Why I study the most dangerous animal on earth -- mosquitoes
Fredros Okumu: Porque estudo o animal mais perigoso do planeta — o mosquito
Fredros Okumu studies human-mosquito interactions, hoping to better understand how to keep people from getting malaria. Full bio
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to welcome all of you once again.
de vos cumprimentar a todos.
a victim of this bug here?
of all the mosquito catchers.
apanha-mosquitos.
mosquito bites every day.
infecciosas de mosquitos por dia.
I moved to the Kilombero River valley
fui para o vale do Rio Kilombero,
one of the most malarious zones
com mais malária no mundo
locally known as degedege.
conhecidas localmente por "deguedegue".
adults and children,
adultos e crianças, sem piedade.
Ifakara Health Institute,
o Instituto de Saúde Ifakara,
for the local communities.
prioritárias das comunidades locais.
refers to a place you go to die,
a um local para onde se vai para morrer,
of what life used to be here
organized public health care.
assistência à saúde organizada.
was going on across the villages
da malária pelas aldeias
were transmitting the disease.
a transmitir essa doença.
of Ifakara town across the river.
with flashlights and siphons.
com lanternas e sifões.
that were coming to bite us
nos viessem picar
selected a household,
swapping positions every half hour.
for 24 consecutive nights.
durante 24 noites consecutivas.
and chopping off their heads
e cortando-lhes a cabeça
carrying malaria parasites
parasitas da malária nos órgãos bocais.
how much malaria was going on here
quanta malária havia por ali
were carrying this malaria.
que transportavam a malária.
inside houses or outside houses.
dentro das casas ou fora das casas.
I still catch mosquitoes for a living.
ganho a vida a apanhar mosquitos.
people's lives and well-being.
a vida e o bem-estar das pessoas.
the most dangerous animal on earth --
o animal mais perigoso do planeta.
know about mosquitoes?
sobre estes mosquitos?
our best practice against malaria
a nossa melhor prática contra a malária
insecticide treated bednets.
tratados com inseticidas.
to insecticides.
— da classe piretroide —
that are put on these bednets.
protect you from bites
nos protegem das picadelas
the mosquitoes that they should.
contrariamente ao que deviam.
to be able to get to zero.
para conseguirmos chegar a zero.
on the biology of the mosquito,
na biologia do mosquito
so we can identify new opportunities.
para identificar novas oportunidades.
with things such as bednets
com os mosquiteiros,
with you a few examples
my colleagues and myself do.
e eu estamos a fazer.
em pequenos charcos de água.
como do tamanho duma pegada.
ou muito longe da nossa casa.
or far from your house.
to control mosquito larvae,
as larvas dos mosquitos,
quite difficult to get them.
and I have decided to do
we used mosquitoes themselves
from a place of our choice
de um local por nós escolhido
they lay there shall not survive.
não sobrevivessem.
who runs this show at Ifakara.
este barco em Ifakara.
that you can actually get mosquitoes
que podemos atrair os mosquitos
where they normally come to get blood
habitualmente para colher sangue
of sterilants or insecticide,
de esterilizadores ou de inseticida
to their own breeding habitat
de reprodução
that you can do this
for malaria research.
colonies of malaria mosquitoes
de grande escala de mosquitos da malaria
and test them immediately,
e testá-los de imediato,
or control them in some way.
aniquilar ou controlar estas populações.
two or three positions
pick up these lethal substances,
apanhar estas substâncias letais,
in just three months.
apenas em três meses.
in what we call swarms.
habitualmente reúnem-se em grupos
usually after sunset.
depois do pôr-do-sol.
of their choice,
male in their view.
and fall down onto the floor.
work gets really interesting.
de apanhar mosquitos fica interessante.
swamp hunting in the villages,
caçar enxames nas aldeias
tend to be at exactly the same location
são normalmente no mesmo local,
todos os meses,
the same time of the evening,
à mesma hora da noite
the same locations.
nos mesmos locais.
all these locations across villages,
de todos esses locais nas aldeias,
duma só vez,
by just a single blow.
or nuke them out.
com a ajuda de rapazes e raparigas
with young men and women
how to identify the swarms,
ensinamos-lhes a identificar os enxames
we have a new window
que temos uma nova janela
eat blood, human blood,
se alimentarem de sangue humano
the most dangerous animal on earth.
o animal mais perigoso do planeta.
extremamente desenvolvidos.
sometimes as 100 meters away.
à distância de 100 metros.
between two family members.
entre dois membros da família.
based on what you produce
com base no que produzimos
sweat and body odor.
da pele, do suor e do corpo.
o que existe na pele,
your body, your sweat or your breath
we created a concoction,
criamos uma mistura,
a blend of synthetic substances
of what you produce from your body.
more mosquitoes than a human being.
mais mosquitos do que um ser humano.
of mosquitoes and you kill them, right?
atraímos muitos mosquitos e matamo-los.
use it for surveillance.
usá-la como vigilância.
on the biology of the mosquito;
sobre a biologia do mosquito,
including, of course, the malaria,
incluindo, claro, a malária,
that mosquitoes transmit
que os mosquitos transmitem,
Chikungunya e Zika.
for example --
por exemplo,
like to bite you on the leg region.
gostarem de nos picar nas pernas.
these mosquito repellent sandals
repelentes de mosquitos
when they're coming.
podem usar quando chegam.
debaixo do mosquiteiro.
with mosquitoes continues.
com os mosquitos continua.
a long way, I can see.
muito tempo, sei disso.
to eliminate malaria from 35 countries.
eliminar a malária em 35 países.
uma meta para 2030:
from the continent.
behind these goals.
empenhados em atingir essas metas.
a cohort of young scientists,
to make this vision come true.
para concretizarem esta visão.
that these dreams come true.
que esse sonho se torne realidade.
durante a nossa vida,
os meus filhos,
free of malaria transmitting mosquitoes
transmissores da malária,
senhoras e senhores.
using CRISPR to kill off mosquitoes?
usarem o CRISP para matar mosquitos?
let's start from what the problem is.
comecemos por ver qual é o problema.
about a disease that still kills --
duma doença que ainda mata
we have from WHO --
que temos da OGM —
in malaria burden.
da incidência da malária.
to get to zero.
para chegar a zero.
such as CRISPR,
genética, como o CRISPR,
para modificar mosquitos
either they do not transmit malaria --
that even if you were to release
mesmo que libertemos
genetically modified mosquitoes,
geneticamente modificados,
elimination very, very quickly.
muito rapidamente.
offer us some real opportunities --
como ele, oferecem-nos reais oportunidades
to have high-impact interventions
in addition to what we have now
para além do que temos hoje
estão sempre a fazer uma pergunta,
to ask this as well --
todos os mosquitos?"
eliminate mosquitoes?"
I would just like to remind my colleagues
de mosquitos no mundo,
mosquito species in this world.
have any capacity to transmit malaria.
têm a capacidade de transmitir a malária.
three or four of these as the major guys.
são só três ou quatro.
of all the malaria we have.
de toda a malária que temos.
with gene editing like CRISPR,
genética, como o CRISPR,
genética para controlar a malária,
with gene drives to control malaria,
de diversidade nisso.
Penso que não há problema.
to eliminate these mosquitoes effectively
eliminar eficazmente estes mosquitos
in America have sprayed with --
nos EUA também os pulverizam
para eliminar estes insetos das aldeias.
these insects out of the villages.
of household spraying.
dentro de casa.
solely at killing the mosquitoes.
a matar os mosquitos.
se tivermos um novo instrumento.
if we had a new tool.
very, very responsible here.
and we have to partner with our regulators
os nossos reguladores como parceiros
that we do is done correctly,
é feito corretamente,
independent risk assessments,
avaliações de risco independentes.
não caem nas mãos erradas.
do not fall into the wrong hands.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Fredros Okumu - Mosquito scientistFredros Okumu studies human-mosquito interactions, hoping to better understand how to keep people from getting malaria.
Why you should listen
Fredros Okumu is director of science at the Ifakara Health Institute (IHI). Since 2008, Okumu has been studying human-mosquito interactions and developing new techniques to complement existing malaria interventions and accelerate efforts towards elimination. His other interests include quantitative ecology of residual malaria vectors, mathematical simulations to predict effectiveness of interventions, improved housing for marginalized communities and prevention of child malnutrition.
Okumu was awarded the Young Investigator Award by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in 2009, a Welcome Trust Intermediate Research Fellowship in Public Health and Tropical Medicine (2014-2019) and, most recently, a Howard Hughes-Gates International Research Scholarship (2018-2023). He is co-chair of the Malaria Eradication Research Agenda consultative group on tools for elimination and a co-chair of the WHO Vector Control Working Group on new tools for malaria vector control. Okumu was named one of the "Top 100 Global Thinkers" by Foreign Policy in 2016.
Fredros Okumu | Speaker | TED.com