A patent application from 2009 with the U.S. Patent Office has surfaced recently describing Microsoft’s angle to eliminating Malaria by, “adapting parasites to combat disease.” In brief, the patent describes equipping bloodsucking parasites with dead pieces of disease agents for the passage to a host in order to immunize instead of infect. Essentially it’s a reverse malaria situation. Instead of getting malaria from infected mosquitoes you would become immune to malaria. Microsoft suggests adapting living creatures with control mechanisms is more efficient than creating artificial creatures.
The application reads, “By modifying or making a parasitic organism that can be programmatically controlled by a stimulus external to the altered parasitic organism, the parasitic organism can be a powerful tool in delivering therapeutic compounds. Control over the function of the parasitic organism permits the selective activation of a treatment protocol, since the altered parasitic organism has the inherent ability to conduct nanoscale manufacturing of one or more beneficial substances. Rather than build nanomachines from scratch, altered parasitic organisms can be exploited as custom designed nanomachines that manufacture and/or deliver useful substances or payloads to a host. In order to effectively manage the host’s condition, the modified parasitic organism can be used to deliver beneficial care and/or to record the internal state of the host.”
In fact over a million people every year are killed by malaria. As population worldwide grows, more people are being subjected to malaria infested conditions. This strategy is meant to try and counter this. This all makes sense in theory but one thing stands out in this patent. Many other bloodsucking parasites are listed in this patent as well.
The list in the application reads, “The system of claim 1, the altered parasitic organism is one species selected from the group comprising: mosquitoes, fleas, ticks, bed bugs (Cimicidae Cimex lectularius), midges (such as Ceratopogonidae), other blood sucking arthropods, annelids or leeches, nematodes such as Ascaris lumbricoides (roundworm which typically invades the gastrointestinal tract and lungs), pinworms such as Enterobius vermicularis (gastrointestinal tract, colon, fingertips), whipworms such as Trichuris trichiuria (gastrointestinal tract), flukes or trematodes such as Fasciola hepatica, Fasciolopsis buski (intestinal fluke) and schistosomes (liver and gallbladder), tapeworms or cestodes such as those from the genus Taenia (gastrointestinal tract), hookworms, heart worms, roundworms, lice (head, body, and pubic), and the like.”
The astonishing thing to realize here is Microsoft is listing insects that are not known to carry or spread disease, like the common bed bug. Why would Microsoft want to patent the ability to play god and adapt a bug to immunize you from a disease that does not exist. Or does it? Does Microsoft know something about bed bugs that the leading researchers don’t? Is it possible that bed bugs could pass a disease to a host if in fact it was infected with something? What do bed bugs, leeches, head lice and tapeworms have to do with stopping the world wide spread of malaria? Only time will tell. In the meantime we can count on our studied and effective bed bug prevention skills and use our all natural bed bug sprays to keep the infestations out of our lives.
