Recently two events concerning the Zika epidemic coincided: two potential vaccines against the virus were declared a success when used in mice, and Jason Day withdrew from the Olympic Games.
Innovations targeted at mosquito control are good but should not draw focus away from the tried and tested public health measures to control mosquito-borne diseases.
Andrew Monaghan, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
More people in the U.S. and world will be exposed to the disease-carrying mosquito Aedes aegypti, not just because of warmer temperatures but global population changes as well.
Look beyond transgenic techniques that add new genes to a species. People have used selective breeding techniques to change plants and animals for millennia – why not try them on mosquitoes?
Despite all the hype around Zika, crucial questions remain unanswered. How great is the risk that infection during pregnancy would result in a baby with microcephaly? And what can be done to prevent this?
Insecticides and mosquito nets only get you so far. Synthetic biologists are ready to take the battle against mosquito-borne disease to the level of DNA – which might spell the insects’ ultimate doom.
Zika was discovered almost 70 years ago, but wasn’t associated with outbreaks until 2007. So how did this formerly obscure virus wind up causing so much trouble in Brazil?
A good summer picnic, bushwalk or barbecue with friends and family can all be ruined by those annoying flies that never leave you alone. So what are they after?
Principal Medical Scientist and Head of Laboratory for Antimalarial Resistance Monitoring and Malaria Operational Research, National Institute for Communicable Diseases