Fighting dengue mosquito with Wolbachia

 

How do male Wolbachia-Aedes mosquitoes help suppress dengue mosquito population?

 

 Prof Ooi Eng Eong on using Wolbachia-Aedes mosquitoes to control dengue

Wolbachia mosquitoes have been released in some 39 localities since the “successful” pilot run of a dengue control project in 2017 that significantly reduced cases, according to the Institute for Medical Research (IMR).

The IMR, which is the research arm of the Health Ministry, told The Star that the Malaysian Wolbachia project that was launched on March 28, 2017, saw Wolbachia-carrying Aedes mosquitoes being released at 11 dengue hotspots in the Klang Valley.

“After one year of release, dengue cases decreased significantly,” it said.

IMR said that “after seeing the promising effect of the initial releases and being impressed by the apparent success of the trial”, the Health Ministry’s Disease Control Department, in collaboration with the IMR, has deployed Wolbachia-carrying Aedes to 28 more localities.

“The outcomes of this operational programme serve as the basis for future expansion of releases in additional dengue-prone areas.

“Malaysia is the first endemic country to use Wolbachia mosquitoes for dengue control. The Health Ministry has established a five-year plan for the release of Wolbachia mosquitoes in dengue hotspots as its rollout programme,” it said.

Vector control, consisting of source reduction, chemical control, biological control, and even genetic control, was one of the strategies used to combat Aedes-borne viruses, IMR said.

Biological control consists of using Wolbachia mosquitoes and the “sterile insect technique”.

“The Malaysian approach is a replacement strategy, where both male and female mosquitoes are released to replace the wild Aedes population in the field,” IMR said.

In other words, the “bad” Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are replaced with “good” Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.

The female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia prevent the growth of dengue virus in the mosquitoes so that the dengue virus could not be transmitted when mosquitoes bite humans, it added.

IMR said the added benefit of the Wolbachia strategy was that it prevented the mosquito from picking up dengue virus from dengue patients who are asymptomatic.

“The asymptomatic transmission of dengue virus to mosquitoes through mosquito bites has been known for years, but there has been no solution to prevent it, but with the Wolbachia strategy, the solution is there,” it said.

When contacted last month, Health director-general Tan Sri Noor Hisham Abdullah said that analysis had shown that dengue cases had been reduced by 75% to 100% in the 14 localities where the Wolbachia Mosquito Operation (WMO) had been implemented for at least two years.

“Nevertheless, ongoing evaluation is required to assess the effectiveness of WMO in reducing dengue cases as well as its impact on averting dengue morbidity and mortality in the long term,” he said.

He said the WMO, which was launched in 2019, had also become a novel tool for vector control under the National Dengue Control and Prevention Programme.

Since July 2019, 28 high-dengue burden localities in Selangor (10), Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya (7), Penang (4), Kelantan (2), Johor (2), Pahang (2), and Melaka (1) have been selected to implement WMO in a staggered manner.

Wolbachia is a bacterium and a form of biological control that is naturally occurring in 60%-70% of insects, spiders and nematodes.

It is usually introduced into Aedes mosquitoes to prevent the transmission of dengue viruses.

The Wolbachia bacteria stops the dengue virus from replicating, so the mosquito does not spread the virus when it bites. 

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Any contagion from US banking crisis?

 

THE collapse of four banks in the United States and Europe has sent fears of systemic risks throughout the global banking system.

Currently, the risk of contagion in Malaysia is low, given the limited direct and indirect exposure of the domestic banking system as well as the swift action taken by United States and Swiss regulators to contain their respective banking crises.

Banks in Malaysia are also generally well-capitalised with healthy liquidity positions, underpinned by a stable and diversified funding base.

Moreover, Bank Negara keeps a close watch on all banks operating locally as compared to the two-tier system in the United States, said RHB Banking Group regional sector head, group wholesale banking David Chong Voon Chee.

The United States has a dual banking system, with national banks regulated on the federal level and state banks regulated by each state.

Still, we should monitor for second and third order effects from these events, where possible cause-and-effects could lead to market volatility, tighter access to credit and ultimately, slower global growth.

In the United States, Californiabased Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and New York’s Signature Bank, collapsed due to heavy losses on their bond portfolios and a huge run on deposits.

San Diego-based Silvergate Bank, which catered largely to cryptocurrency companies, had voluntarily wound down its operations.

As investors began ditching out anything related to banking risks, Switzerland’s scandal-ridden Credit Suisse also collapsed as its largest shareholder, Saudi National Bank, stopped investing in it.

As a result of the banking crisis in March, 2023, the jump in risk indicators – credit default swaps of major US and European banking names as well as US sovereign credit default swaps – has become worrying.

However, their levels are still far from the highs of the global financial crisis of 2008.

A credit default swap is a financial derivative that allows investors to offset their credit risks with that of another investor.

But volatility outside of rates – in other asset classes like foreign exchange, equities and commodities – remain relatively modest by historical standards, implying that the crisis is not systemic, said United Overseas Bank in a report.

In the case of Malaysian banks, beyond the minimum level of 8% for total capital ratio (TCR), excess capital stands at about Rm196bil, as of January.

Meanwhile, TCR (the ratio of total capital to total risk-weighted assets) at 18.9% in January is way above the prescribed level of 8%.

This means that banks have substantial buffer in their capital levels where they are able to absorb a significant amount of loans impairment and market volatility, said Bank Muamalat chief economist and social finance, Mohamed Afzanisam Abdul Rashid.

Despite external uncertainties, this indicates that borrowing and lending activities can be conducted seamlessly, while households and businesses are able to access credit from the banking sector without hassle.

Nevertheless, every financing application will be subjected to their eligible criteria including repayment history and the level of indebtedness.

Malaysian banks also usually have a relatively smaller portion of assets in investments while interest rate increase is less drastic, and hence, the mark-to-market losses would be comparatively smaller, said Fortress Capital Asset Management Sdn Bhd CEO Thomas Yong.

If a security was bought at a certain price and the market price dropped later, it would result in an unrealised loss, marking the security down to the new market price would lead to mark-to-market losses.

Malaysian banks also have a large portion of household depositors, while business depositors are diversified across different industries.

Hence, the need for a large amount of liquidity to fund withdrawals is less urgent.

While there will be jitters, banks in Malaysia are well-regulated besides having a diversified depositor base, they also have retailers who are more loyal, said Etiqa Insurance and Takaful chief strategy officer Chris Eng.

The funding base of the Malaysian banking system remained strong, with an aggregate liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) and net stable funding ratio of 154% and 118.2% respectively, at the end of 2022.

The LCR seeks to ensure that banks hold sufficient high-quality assets, while the net stable funding ratio calculates the proportion of available over required stable funding.

More than 80% of banks’ high quality liquid assets are in the form of placements with Bank Negara and government bonds, which banks can access and pledge in the interbank market or with Bank Negara for additional liquidity, according to Maybank Investment Bank in a report.

Foreign currency external debt-at-risk was manageable, at Rm80.4bil or 20.3% of total banking system external debt.

Loans under repayment assistance programmes declined to 4.2% of total banking system loans at the end of 2022, from 5.7% at the end of June, 2022.

Loan loss coverage ratio (which indicates how protected a bank is against future losses), including regulatory reserves, remained high at 118.2% at the end of 2022.

Since the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997, Malaysia’s banking industry has gone through a significant consolidation which brought down the number of banks from more than 60 to about 10 banks by early 2020.

Non-performing loans had led to the creation of Danaharta Nasional to address non-performing accounts while banks concentrated on running their businesses.

Risk management oversight was implemented at a robust pace and Malaysian banks were required to run multiple scenarios for the stress testing of their balance sheets.

This resulted in well-capitalised and highly liquid banks as well as sound credit underwriting standards.

Following the recent banking crisis, banks especially those in the United States and Europe, now need to defend and fight for their credit worthiness.

While fears of contagion are being allayed for now, caution and constant monitoring will prevail. 

• by Yap Leng Kuen is a former StarBiz editor.

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Ever since the Fed ended its ultra-loose monetary policy and turned to a radical rate hike approach, the international financial market has been in turmoil with many currencies depreciating sharply. That has forced many countries to diversify their foreign exchange reserve assets. – AP

 

MARKET expectations for the Federal Reserve to end interest rate hikes have picked up as core inflation data in the United States has dropped and the University of Michigan’s consumer confidence index fell from 67 in February to 62 in March – yet worries abound about the outlook for the US economy.

Former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers said recently that it is too early to say that the US has shaken off the financial woes caused by its rapid interest rate hikes. The US economy is likely to experience a serious recession as a result of the recent banking crisis, with little chances of a “soft landing”. With recession expectations picking up, the factors supporting a strong US dollar are disappearing.

Ever since the Fed ended its ultra-loose monetary policy and turned to a radical rate hike approach, the international financial market has been in turmoil, with many currencies depreciating sharply. That has forced many countries to reduce holdings of US Treasuries, diversifying foreign exchange reserve assets.

In mid-march, Russia’s central bank reported that the ruble and “friendly” currencies together accounted for 52% of Russian export settlements at the end of 2022, surpassing the share of the US dollar and euro for the first time on record.

The members of Asean agreed at the end of March to strengthen the use of local currencies in the region and reduce reliance on major international currencies in cross-border trade and investment. On April 1, India and Malaysia agreed to settle trade in Indian rupees.

Data show that the proportion of US dollar reserves and assets in global central banks’ foreign exchange reserves has dropped from 65.46% in the first quarter of 2016 to 59.79% in the third quarter of 2022.

Despite its declining status, the US dollar still accounts for the largest share of global trade settlement, central banks’ foreign exchange reserves, global debt pricing, and global capital flows. However, the abuse of the US dollar hegemony has led many countries to launch a “de-dollarisation” campaign. The more the US dollar is used as a weapon, the faster it will be abandoned by other countries.

It’s unrealistic that some in the United States want to safeguard the benefits brought by the US dollar as a leading international currency, but don’t want to shoulder corresponding international responsibilities. – China Daily/Asia News Network

 

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 “This is all part of a broader discussion of possibilities for reducing the use of the dollar. This discussion is not new and has happened in the past but it appears to be more serious now and the actual changes are taking place,” - Prof Geoffrey William

Of late, the hot topic that is rapidly gaining pace is many countries, including Malaysia, are mulling the idea of reducing their trade dependency on the US dollar.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has also lent heavy support to the thought of reducing Malaysia’s dependency on the greenback in terms of attracting foreign direct investments into the country, as well as in bilateral trades not involving the United States.

This came as Anwar announced on Tuesday that investments worth about RM170bil by China-based companies would be kicking off next month.

The prime minister has also last week proposed the setting up of an Asian Monetary Fund (AMF), stressing the need to lower reliance on the greenback as well as the US-backed International Monetary Fund (IMF), an idea that he himself reported has been well received by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is open to discussing its implementation.

According to Geoffrey Williams, economics professor at Malaysia University of Science and Technology (MUST), what Anwar was saying is in line with a growing group of international leaders seriously questioning the role of the dollar and the US/European Union systems, hence the prime minister’s comment is a change of tone with possible action points.

“This is all part of a broader discussion of possibilities for reducing the use of the dollar. This discussion is not new and has happened in the past but it appears to be more serious now and the actual changes are taking place,” Williams told StarBiz.

He concurred with Anwar’s view that bilateral trade between two nations could use the currencies of the countries involved instead of the dollar, calling it “feasible” and is in fact growing in popularity.

“Most commodities are priced and traded in dollars but direct sale of oil between Russia and China as well as India is circumventing that arrangement.

“There is an increasing probability this will extend to more countries and more commodities,” Williams said.

Some parties have even suggested that Anwar may not be taking any sides in the global balance of power between China and the United States, despite his preference for dollar independence.

However, uneasiness remains on the geopolitical implications of the suggested move and how it will affect relationships between countries such as Malaysia and the United States as well as its allies.

While acknowledging such concerns, Williams said: “At the moment, many countries are understandably questioning whether the dollar dominance is beneficial to them and if better exchange arrangements could be found.”

Meanwhile, economist and chief executive at Centre for Market Education, Dr Carmelo Ferlito, said that while countries can ponder over better options in a multipolar world, alternatives need to be weighed in with painstaking care.

Ferlito said the appearance of the euro in 1999 was met with a warm welcome since it forced the dollar to face a competitor characterised by stronger monetary discipline, and that the emergence of something new in the East, if properly conceived, could strengthen the path towards monetary stability.

However, he added: “If global currency competition were to move in the right direction, the path will remain incomplete without an actual competition between currencies within countries.

“A competition that enables individuals to choose the currency to be used for their daily transactions, favouring the emergence of a virtuous competition among currencies toward stability.

“Our point is thus that the new and vibrant developments in the international monetary scene can be a source of benefit – rather than spawn geopolitical tension – only if accompanied by a true opening of national economies to competition among available currencies. 

A novel Asean or BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) currency could become a strong alternative

“In this way, a novel Asean or BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) currency could become a strong alternative not as the result of a political will of power but simply as a consequence of market competition.”

On the setting up of an AMF, MUST’s Williams said such an idea is definitely attainable but would require participation across many Asian countries, especially to provide the finance and to agree to the terms on which access to that finance is made available.

As such, he remarked that it is not just a financial matter but also a geopolitical one.

“The main issue is who will fund the AMF and what will be the contribution rates for each member.

“It is likely that most will come from China, unless Japan and South Korea joins in. Otherwise most Asian countries are too small to contribute much.

“Ultimately, this will be driven by economic cost-benefit considerations and whether non-aligned countries like Malaysia can maintain good relationships with all parties without using the dollar,” he noted.

On the other hand, the move to bilateral currencies for trade and investment between two countries, while feasible, would be more at risk to exchange fluctuations and liquidity issues, Williams said, adding that this could be improved by a switch to multiple currency options.

Of note, and on something that has not been touched by Anwar, the economics professor said the dollar still provides stable, reliable and secure financial systems such as the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT).

“Cybersecurity is essential and the questions of geopolitical stability also arise but these may not be solved by breaking up international systems into smaller regional systems,” he said.

There certainly has been an influx of recent activities geared towards reducing the use of the dollar in international trade, such as the discussions between Brazil and Argentina to create a common currency or Saudi Arabia declaring its openness to trade in other currencies other than the greenback for the first time in 48 years.

But the fact that the International Monetary Fund data shows central banks worldwide are still holding about 60% of their foreign exchange reserves in dollars as at the fourth quarter of 2022 literally means it is extremely unlikely the currency would be losing its status as the global reserve unit anytime soon. 

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How dangerous are India’s generic drugs? Very

 

India relies on the weak oversight of developing countries that make up the bulk of its exports – that’s how it can continue to push substandard and often deadly medicines there. — Bloomberg

 

FOR a nation that seeks to claim the mantle of “pharmacy to the world,” India is scandalously short on regulatory oversight.

In the last six months, its generic cough syrups have killed dozens of children, its eye drops have caused blindness and its chemotherapy drugs have been contaminated.

The children who died – mostly under the age of five years – were given Indian-made over-the-counter products contaminated with industrial solvents and antifreeze agents that are fatal in even small amounts.

The eye drops that contained extensively drug-resistant bacteria? So far 68 patients across 16 US states have been affected. Three people died, several had to have their eyeballs removed, some went blind, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported on March 21.

The Indian company, Global Pharma Healthcare, issued a voluntary nationwide recall for the drops. India is the largest provider of generic medicines, producing 20% of the world’s supply, according to the government’s Economic Survey.

Its US$50bil (RM220bil) drug-manufacturing industry exports medicines to over 200 nations and makes 60% of all vaccines. It boasts “the highest number” of US Food and Drug Administration or FDA-compliant plants outside America, and indeed, some of its generic pharmaceutical companies produce high-quality medicines.

That may well provide consumers with a level of comfort, but history suggests it is unwise to trust that feeling.

The latest drug recalls just add to a long line of scandals that have tainted the sector.

In 2013, a US subsidiary of major Indian drug manufacturer Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd pleaded guilty to US federal criminal charges and agreed to pay US$500mil (RM2.2bil) lion for selling adulterated generic drugs, fabricating data, and committing fraud. Serious flaws in the FDA compliance regime allowed these breaches to go undiscovered, until a years-long investigation laid bare the endemic corruption.

A generic drug made in India and modelled on Lipitor sold in the US to treat high cholesterol, for example, was contaminated with shards of blue glass, as journalist Katherine Eban documented in her book, Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom. Her book draws in part on the experience of whistleblower Dinesh Thakur, who worked at Ranbaxy.

You would think such a damning indictment would prompt India to develop a safer, better pharmaceutical oversight regime. Think again.

The systemic fraud exposed by the investigation – where data was routinely falsified to fool inspectors, increase production and maximise profit – did not result in a regulatory overhaul.

Still, a two-day “brainstorming session” held in February appeared to acknowledge the system’s inherent weaknesses, with Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya telling participants India needed to “move from generic to quality-generic drugs.”

Discussions involved “how to make the country’s drugs regulatory systems transparent, predictable and verifiable,” according to a health ministry media release.

Consumers shouldn’t hold their breath, though. A national law on drug recalls has been under discussion since 1976 without resolution, and the government – at least publicly –remains in denial: Since the Ranbaxy scandal, Thakur has campaigned for the reform of India’s main regulator, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, and, with lawyer T. Prashant Reddy, has written his own book, The Truth Pill: The Myth of Drug Regulation in India, which was published in October.

They note that adulterated Indian drugs aren’t just killing children in developing-world export markets like Gambia and Uzbekistan. They’re also killing children at home: In 2019, at least 11 infants died in the state of Jammu because of cough syrup containing diethylene glycol. 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) sent alerts in October and January, asking for the cough medicine to be removed from the shelves. (It also issued a warning last year for cough syrups made by four Indonesian manufacturers sold in that country, where 203 children died in similar circumstances.)

Maiden Pharmaceuticals, whose medicines were sold in Gambia and linked by the WHO to the deaths of at least 70 children, has denied wrongdoing. And India’s regulator rejected the WHO’s findings, saying no toxic substances had been found in samples taken from Maiden’s plant. 

It shouldn’t have taken more deaths for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration to act. The red flags have been there for years. What’s lacking is political will, and transparency. The FDA publishes different reviews of new drug applications on its website, along with detailed notes. 

So why does contamination with such deadly substances occur so regularly?

“The simple answer is that Indian pharmaceutical companies quite often fail to test either the raw materials or the final formulation before shipping it to market,” Thakur said.

India relies on the weak oversight of developing countries that make up the bulk of its exports – that’s how it can continue to push substandard and often deadly medicines there.

In the absence of a global framework for pharmaceutical safety, what can be done to make the generic drugs that consumers around the world have come to rely on safer and effective?

For a start, the WHO’s prequalification programme, which facilitates the purchase of billions of dollars’ worth of medicines through international agencies such as Unicef, must be overhauled. Then there’s the question of holding these companies to account for the harm they cause inside and outside India via legal avenues and victims’ compensation. — Bloomberg 

- Ruth Pollard is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. The views expressed here are the writer’s own.

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