Monthly Archives: November 2016

Now it’s worms controlling mosquito behaviour

elephantiasis

In addition to viruses such as Dengue and Zika, Aedes mosquitoes are responsible for transmitting roundworms that can cause elephantiasis. New work has shown that these worms can affect the behaviour and fecundity of mosquitoes in ways that may change our ability to model disease transmission patterns.

Update on Zika virus, microcephaly and control efforts

Aedes_aegypti-300×199 BB 2.1

Yesterday, November 3, 2016, was the 1st official One Health Day, devoted to bring global attention to the need to consider the health of people, pets, animals, plants and our environment as one single system, instead of disjoint pieces. There are no better examples for diseases in need of such approach than those caused by vector-borne pathogens. The vector-borne disease that has been in the news most during the last year was of course Zika virus. There have been a lot of developments lately in our understanding of the level of association between Zika virus infection and microcephaly, as well as the mechanism by which Zika virus creates damage. In addition, numerous approaches have been proposed and are in development to control either the virus or the mosquitoes that transmit it. Below, we provide an update on these issues as well as discuss the conflicting predictions for what the future holds for this pesky arthropod-borne virus.

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