Zika Virus Conspiracy Theory: Mosquitoes Carrying The Disease Are Mutants?

The Zika virus has been around since 1947 but it was only recently when it hit the world's consciousness. With the sudden surge in the number of victims, however, conspiracy theorists came out of the woodworks.

Reddit user redditsucksatbanning claimed that the Zika virus-carrying mosquitoes are genetically altered--in short, mutants--produced by British company Oxitec, aimed at ethnic cleansing and population control in Latin America.

This firm allegedly worked to reduced dengue-causing mosquitoes by the use of new "genetically engineered Oxitec mosquito."

"The fact that the number of Aedes aegypti adults were reduced by 95% in the treatment area confirms that the Oxitec mosquito does what it is supposed to and that is to get rid of mosquitoes," said Dr Andrew McKemey, Head of Field Operations at Oxitec according to a press release the company wrote on July 2 last year.

That sound like good news but according to the conspiracy theory, the mosquitoes the company created found a way to come back to life spawning the Zika virus.

User redditsucksatbanning further wrote:

"What is the effect on these mosquitoes that grow up with a mutilated genome? It is thought that this should introduce a fitness cost, that is, they should have greater difficulty surviving. What do we know about these mosquitoes? Has adequate research ever been done on how a genetically mutilated mosquito copes with viral infections? Could the mosquito be more susceptible to certain pathogens, that it then passes on to humans? If a pathogen like the Zika virus can thrive in the mosquito without restraint, it could evolve into something far more dangerous than its original incarnation, pulling the lever on the slot machine with every replication until it hits the genetic jackpot."

Business Insider consulted an expert who thought that the Zika Virus conspiracy theory is worth a second look.

"It could very well be the case that genetically modified mosquitoes could end up being one of the most important tools that we have to combat Zika," said Alex Perkins, a Notre Dame biological sciences professor. "If anything, we should potentially be looking into using these more."

Oxitec, however, denied that the Zika Virus conspiracy theory is true.

"All vector control solutions - insecticides, traps, and 'sterile' mosquitoes get deployed in areas with a high incidence of disease to help stop the spread of the disease at its source," CEO Hadyn Parry said. "The fewer the mosquitoes, the lower the risk of disease. Our approach has proven to be more effective than the alternatives with a lower environmental impact."

So far, more than 3,500 cases of Zika Virus infection have been reported from October 2015 to January 2016. The hardest hit country is Brazil, the same country where the Oxitec mosquitoes were unleashed, as least according to the conspiracy theory.