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Articles on Vectors

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Children and women run in a cloud of dust at the village of El Gel, Ethiopia. Climate change has pushed the Horn of Africa into a catastrophic drought. Photo by EDUARDO SOTERAS/AFP via Getty Images)

Climate change risks triggering a spike in infectious disease outbreaks: three reasons why

Heat, floods and droughts create conditions for pathogens and their vectors.
The black-legged tick is the vector that spreads Lyme disease. Its bite can infect humans with the Borrelia burgdorferi bacterium. (Jim Gathany/CDC)

Lyme disease: The pathogen’s cunning strategies for persistent infection offer clues for vaccine development

The bacterium that causes Lyme disease is a master of disguise, changing its appearance to evade the immune system as it moves from the ticks that carry it to humans or animals.
Pangolins have been found with covonaviruses that are genetically similar to the one afflicting humans today. Jekesai Njikizana/AFP/Getty Images

How deforestation helps deadly viruses jump from animals to humans

Yellow fever, malaria and Ebola all spilled over from animals to humans at the edges of tropical forests. The new coronavirus is the latest zoonosis.
Our research showed that inflight magazines offered travellers health advice on everything from dehydration to swollen ankles, but hardly anything on avoiding catching and spreading infectious diseases. from www.shutterstock.com

Air travel spreads infections globally, but health advice from inflight magazines can limit that

Washing hands and coughing into your elbow can help limit the spread of infectious diseases on planes and around the globe. So why don’t passengers read about this in their inflight magazines?
There’s a short window between when a tick bites and when it passes on bacteria or virus. MSU Ag Communications, Courtesy Dr. Tina Nations

Ticks spread plenty more for you to worry about beyond Lyme disease

Tick-borne diseases are becoming more common in the United States. A public health entomologist outlines some of the lesser-known threats ticks pose to human health.

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