Oxitec, the company behind the trials, are attempting to reduce the population of the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes which are the major vectors for carrying mosquito borne diseases like dengue, chikungunya and Zika by creating genetically engineering sterile males.
Uh huh and if say, the last remaining males who aren't sterile carry a gene that increases virus transmission? Oops.
Its not entirely implausible. GMOs should be more confined to the lab. Bacteria producing insulin in an industrial setting is one thing. Messing with the reproduction of a wild species is completely different.
Same with all the cold virus myths. Rhinovirus and such replicate best at 91.6F. Someone who is a carrier breathing cold air can see rhinovirus populations hit 100x, then you throw an immune response, or stay immune but give it to someone else anyway. Then there are the geniuses who go "you can't get the cold from the cold, its caused by the virus." Derp. But temperature is a big factor in pathogen virulence.
There is actually alot going on in the gut of a mosquito wrt to potential for virulence.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19737112
This selection can be for either higher or lower virulence, depending on the interaction between the effect of the transgene and the trade-offs in epidemiological traits, highlighting the need for detailed quantitative data to understand more fully the impact of mosquito transgenesis on dengue virulence. Dengue virulence in mosquitoes can be selected on by transgenic strategies of blocking transmission, decreased mosquito biting, increased mosquito background mortality, and increased mosquito infection-induced mortality. Our results suggest that dengue control strategies that raise mosquito background mortality or mosquito infection-induced mortality pose less risk of causing increased virulence to humans than strategies that block transmission or reduce mosquito biting.
Key word there is "risk" because there is a probability that it can happen.
Which is why I pose the question. Has there ever been an example of Zika spreading like this before? Its possible to screw up and actually increase virulence.
Its possible to have just screwed with millions of years of evolution. "Mosquitoes that carried dengue fever virulence were more fit and were preferable to mosquitoes that carried Zika virulence factors because they fucking killed their host population."
With ebola, you knew it was going to be more self contained because ebola has such a high mortality rate that an epidemic burns itself out. An ebola strain with a lower mortality rate would actually be more of a concern than one with a high mortality rate, IMO. This is how nature works. The most successful virus is actually the cold. Ebola will burn itself out everytime. Rhinovirus doesn't kill you because it wants to be nice. It just wants to spread.
This seems bad, in my opinion. The Zika thing. Something that targets pregnant women and affects fertility is no joke.