Team:Mingdao/Human Practices 3-1-3
Street Survey
Interview: the public
Date: Aug. 19, 2018
Location: Schools or Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store Co., Ltd., Taichung
Reflection: blood testing preference, safety, accuracy
Why: To know what the public see our project and GMO as
How: In terms of our survey, we highly believe the importance of public’s voice, of what they think our project mean to them. In order to understand our project affects the world and the world affects our project design, we did a series of surveys with primary school’s students, teachers and staffs in Mingdao High School, as well as team members’ friends and parents, and also for the public. What: We first gave an introduction to our project, and asked several questions in the following.
Introduction:
We are currently developing a novel blood testing method using GE mosquito as a blood drawing and testing device. Thus, it can reduce the needs of health workers and volunteers in poor source regions like some areas in Africa. And because mosquitoes are easy to breed and cost almost nothing to transport, they can solve the problems of inadequate medical equipment and short in power and water sources. In our experimental design, when the mosquito sucks the blood of the AIDS patient, the mosquito body will change color to indicate the positive of HIV viruses. Then we can not only inform them quickly and let them be treated early, but also prevent from infecting others without knowing that they are already sick. The following are the results of our questionnaire analysis: 1. What do you think is the main course Africa become HIV epidemic and has most AIDS sufferers?
2. Who do you think should take the responsibility to care about the health problem in a country with shortage of medical workers and lab equipment?
3. What is your preference concerning the methods of disease testing? (5 point scale from dislike to like)
Result:
People think the major reason causing HIV epidemic and more AIDS sufferers in limited-resource area like in Africa is lack of knowledge and limited lab equipment. And the government and people in that country are responsible for the problem. To solve such a health problem, a rapid and simple testing tools should be introduced to this kind of regions. People agreed the rapid test with saliva samples is the best method as a point-of-care tool. The public recognized our blood testing method through mosquito bite as unsafe procedure which may spread disease in case of escaping. Reflection:
During the survey, we asked people who were having lunch, having communication or waiting for bus, we were rejected by people all the time. We’ve learned to accept the little disappointment and did our best to achieve the number of 100 questionnaires. However, the result is quite obvious that the public have a great tendency of not trusting the safety of our modified mosquitoes due to the recent outbreak of mosquitoes-borne Dengue fever diseases in Taiwan. It is neither our mistake nor people’s , but honestly, it’s not an acceptable trend for now. So what we can do is to convince them with the features and advantages of our methods by comparing to other current blood testing tools. In addition, the safety of a product with a GE mosquito should be taken more care. After the survey, we consulted the mosquito expert at National Chung Hsing University for the safety issue, he advised us to make a wingless mosquito as our prototype that didn’t affect the mosquito blood sucking behavior. And he also added it’s important and our efforts to educate people about the biotech application especially of GE products.
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Phone: +886-4-23341797
EMAIL: biolab@ms.mingdao.edu.tw
No.497, Sec. 1, Zhongshan Rd., Wuri District, Taichung City 414, Taiwan (R.O.C.)