Certain viruses like dengue and Zika can make their hosts smell tastier to mosquitoes. Luckily, vitamin A and its derivatives may help combat these odor changes.
Pieter Vancamp, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle (MNHN) et Barbara Demeneix, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle (MNHN)
A new study shows that the pesticide pyriproxyfen – widely used in Brazil during the Zika outbreak of 2015 – could disrupt thyroid hormones and thus affect brain development in children.
What is a ‘blue acceleration’ doing to our oceans?
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Plus, why Brazilian women who lived through Zika are avoiding getting pregnant during the COVID-19 pandemic. Listen to episode 18 of The Conversation Weekly podcast.
A field hospital in São Paulo state, Brazil, on March 26, 2021. Brazil keeps setting new COVID-19 records, with up to 4,000 people dying daily.
Miguel Schincariol/AFP via Getty Images
Letícia Marteleto, The University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts
Officials in Brazil recently asked women to avoid pregnancy, citing heightened risk to them and newborns. But births were already dropping; a new study attributes it to the trauma of Zika.
Swarms of locusts are seen on a tree in a residential area in the southwestern Pakistan city of Quetta on June 12, 2020.
BANARAS KHAN/AFP via Getty Images
Gene drive guarantees that a trait will be passed to the next generation. But should society use this tool to control insect populations?
In 2018 scientists of the Miami-Dade County Mosquito Control tested a new way to suppress mosquito populations carrying the Zika virus.
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Brian Allan, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Chris Stone, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Holly Tuten, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Jennifer Kuzma, North Carolina State University et Natalie Kofler, Harvard University
Release of GM mosquitoes in Florida is imminent. But a multidisciplinary team of scientists believe that more studies are needed first. They encourage a publicly accessible registry for GM organisms.
The pangolin, one of the most poached animals in the world, could have served as an intermediate host in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to humans.
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The declaration does not mean the risk to Canadians has changed, but it does mean Canada must step up to help those countries with weaker heath-care systems.
Although yellow fever does not currently exist in Australia, the species Aedes aegypti - which can transmit the disease - is found widely across northern Queensland. The virus remains a global health concern, but citizen scientists could help prevent its spread.
Simon Kutcher/flickr
Nuisance-biting and mosquito-borne disease are ongoing concerns for health authorities. But an effective citizen science program is now showing how all of us can help beat the bite of mozzies.
Millions of young children get malaria. These two got it in 2010.
AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam
There’s a big market for new treatments for TB, malaria and other ailments. But most of these diseases afflict low-income people unable to pay for medicine.
In January, measles returned to the Pacific Northwest, while Ebola resurged in the Congo. It would take a lot more research for scientists to be able to stop threats like these in their tracks.
A female Anopheles stephensi mosquito bites a human to get a blood meal through its pointed proboscis. A droplet of blood is expelled from the abdomen after having engorged itself.
Jim Gathany/Wikimedia Commons
Researchers are exploring genetic forms of population control called gene drives that spread traits faster that happens naturally. The goal is to curb mosquito-borne diseases like malaria.
The mosquitoes that spread Japanese encephalitis are usually found in wetlands and drainage ditches, and will be out biting mostly at dawn and dusk.
Bryon Lippincott/Flikr
Japanese encephalitis virus is rare and doesn’t usually cause symptoms. But in a small proportion of cases it can result in long-term neurological impairment and death.
Warmer temperatures could lead to more zones of the country that make good breeding sites for mosquitoes.
Apichart Meesri / Shutterstock.com
Is our changing climate making regions of the US more suitable for ticks and mosquitoes that spread diseases? Or is the climate changing human physiology making us more vulnerable?
Climate change also has an impact on public health.
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Scientists need to continue working across disciplines to find ways to disrupt disease transmission in the context of climate change.
More than 3.9 billion people live in regions where the Aedes aegypti mosquito is present. This species transmits Zika, dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever.
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For several billion people mosquitoes are more than a nuisance – they transmit deadly diseases. Now genetic modification may prove the most effective defense against the mosquito, preventing disease.
Visiting Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies, Brown University, USA, and Distinguished Professor, Public Health and Medical Anthropology, University of the Witwatersrand
Associate Dean For Global One Health, College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences; and Director, Pandemic and Biosecurity Policy Program, Scowcroft Institute for International Affairs, Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University
Honorary Professor Faculty of Health and Medical Science, Univeristy of Sydney; Senior Researcher Sydney Institue for Infectious Disease, University of Sydney., University of Sydney