The human population has doubled in 48 years, and worsening climate change has left the world facing serious health risks, from infectious diseases to hunger and heat stress.
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.
About 98% of mosquitoes aren't harmful to humans. We need to learn to deal with those that are.
Children run as an agent of the National Institute of Public Hygiene carries out fumigation in the Anyama district of Abidjan,Ivory Coast.
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A warming climate may change the types of viruses that thrive. A new report suggests that the threat of malaria may be replaced by dengue, for which there is no treatment and no cure.
Swarms of locusts are seen on a tree in a residential area in the southwestern Pakistan city of Quetta on June 12, 2020.
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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, and 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.
A family sitting under a treated mosquito net.
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The pandemic coincides with the long rainy season in Kenya. Rain increases mosquito breeding sites, vector density and thus transmission of mosquito-borne diseases.
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.
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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.
Training is necessary to equip health workers to deal with climate change risks.
EPA
Mosquito-borne dengue virus returned to central Queensland after being absent for decades. But while most Australian cases involve travellers, this one is locally acquired.
We might not be able to use common insecticides to kill mosquitoes that arrive from other countries.
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Been on a tropical holiday? You might have brought home more than just a new sarong and extra colour in your cheeks – perhaps a mosquito that spreads dengue, or another known as ‘the BBQ stopper’.
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.
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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.
View of Taichung City, Taiwan, behind a mosquito net.
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Genetically modified mosquitoes breed fear and suspicion, especially since the research happens behind closed doors, away from the public. Now scientists and architects are trying to change that model.
Warmer temperatures could lead to more zones of the country that make good breeding sites for mosquitoes.
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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?
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.
Mosquitoes are picky about who they bite but it’s not actually “us” that they’re smelling when they choose their next meal…
Psorophora ferox female, a potential vector for Madariaga virus. Photo taken on Heritage Island, Anacostia River, in Washington, D.C., June 30, 2012.
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The collapse of Venezuela’s public health system has terrible consequences inside the country, but it also is giving rise to mosquito-borne viruses that could spread to nearby countries.