Dengue immune function discovery could benefit much-needed vaccine development
(Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont) Despite a daunting more than 130 million cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections to date worldwide, another global pathogen - the mosquito-borne dengue virus - saw a record number of over 400 million cases in 2019. But vaccine development has been challenging due to the need to protect equally against all four dengue strains. The discovery of new possible biomarkers to predict clinical and immune responses to dengue virus infection could be critical to informing future vaccines. (Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health)
Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health - May 24, 2021 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: news
Africa: We're a Step Closer to Figuring Out Why Mosquitoes Bite Some People and Not Others
[The Conversation Africa] Mosquitoes contribute to the transmission of life-threatening diseases that include Zika, dengue, chikungunya, Rift Valley fever and malaria. Of these, malaria carries the most risk accounting for 229 million cases and more than 400,000 deaths in 2019. Africa accounted for 67% (274 000) of all malaria deaths worldwide. (Source: AllAfrica News: Malaria)
Source: AllAfrica News: Malaria - May 19, 2021 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
People who have had dengue are twice as likely to develop symptomatic COVID-19
(Funda ç ã o de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de S ã o Paulo) This is the main finding of a study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.The authors analyzed blood samples collected in a town in the Brazilian Amazon before and after the first wave of the pandemic to detect the presence of antibodies against dengue virus and SARS-CoV-2. (Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases)
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - May 18, 2021 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
Scientists rewrite the genesis of mosquito-borne viruses
(Monash University) Better designed vaccines for insect-spread viruses like dengue and Zika are likely after researchers discovered models of immature flavivirus particles were originally misinterpreted.Researchers from The University of Queensland and Monash University have now determined the first complete 3D molecular structure of the immature flavivirus, revealing an unexpected organization. (Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases)
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - May 14, 2021 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
Jab-free dengue immunity could be just a click away
(University of Queensland) A dengue virus vaccine candidate has passed an important milestone, with promising results in animal model testing providing hope to the 390 million people infected every year. (Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases)
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - May 12, 2021 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Have Come to the U.S. Will They Work?
“Our Mosquito Project Takes Flight,” reads a baby-blue billboard off US-1 in the Florida Keys, alongside an image of an insect tracing a path in the shape of a heart. Sponsored by the local mosquito control board and U.K.-based biotech firm Oxitec, the ad promotes a contentious plan to release millions of genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquitoes here to test a new method of bioengineered pest control. It’s the first-ever such experiment in the United States, and one that has turned this chain of sun-soaked island communities into a battleground over scientific truth, government authority, and humanit...
Source: TIME: Health - May 9, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alejandro de la Garza / Florida Keys, Fl. Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news
Why the COVID-19 Variants Spreading in India Are a Global Concern
As the numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths in India continue to mount, public health officials are carefully watching yet another looming threat: the appearance of mutations that could be making the virus circulating there more infectious or more capable of causing severe disease.
Scientists believe that the variants of SARS-CoV-2 responsible for this second wave of cases in India already include at least two mutations that make them more dangerous. These mutations are already familiar to COVID-19 experts. One is found in a variant first identified in South Africa, while the other is part of a variant believed to have eme...
Source: TIME: Health - April 28, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alice Park Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news
Brazil at high risk of dengue outbreaks after droughts because of temporary water storage
(London School of Hygiene& Tropical Medicine) Dengue risk is exacerbated in highly populated areas of Brazil after extreme drought because of improvised water containers housing mosquitoes, suggests a new study in Lancet Planetary Health.The research was led by the London School of Hygiene& Tropical Medicine's (LSHTM) Centre on Climate Change& Planetary Health and Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases. (Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases)
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - April 8, 2021 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
Effective interventions may prevent disease transmission in changing climate
(PLOS) Aedes aegypti are the primary vector for mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever, however the effects of climate change-related weather anomalies on mosquito populations is not well understood. A study published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases by Cameron Nosrat at Stanford University, United States and colleagues suggests that early interventions may prevent disease transmission even as extreme climate events may increase the abundance of Ae. aegypti populations. (Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases)
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - March 18, 2021 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
Study of mosquito protein could lead to treatments against life-threatening viruses
Protein AEG12 strongly inhibits the family of viruses that cause yellow fever, dengue, West Nile, and Zika. (Source: National Institutes of Health (NIH) News Releases)
Source: National Institutes of Health (NIH) News Releases - March 10, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: news
Study of Mosquito Protein Could Lead to Treatments Against Life-threatening Viruses
The mosquito protein AEG12 strongly inhibits the family of viruses that cause yellow fever, dengue, West Nile, and Zika and weakly inhibits coronaviruses, according to scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and their collaborators. (Source: NIEHS News)
Source: NIEHS News - March 10, 2021 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: news
Study of mosquito protein could lead to treatments against life-threatening viruses
(NIH/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences) The mosquito protein AEG12 strongly inhibits the family of viruses that cause yellow fever, dengue, West Nile, and Zika and weakly inhibits coronaviruses, according to scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and their collaborators. The researchers found that AEG12 works by destabilizing the viral envelope, breaking its protective covering. The findings could lead to therapeutics against viruses that affect millions of people around the world. The research was published online in PNAS. (Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases)
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - March 10, 2021 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
Models to predict dengue, zika and yellow fever outbreaks are developed by researchers
(Funda ç ã o de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de S ã o Paulo) Scientists will monitor areas in which these diseases are endemic, such as S ã o Paulo, the Amazon, the Pantanal and Panama, to investigate the factors that trigger outbreaks (monkey being examined in Manaus á rea. (Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health)
Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health - February 23, 2021 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: news
Scientists use machine-learning approach to track disease-carrying mosquitoes
(Utah State University) A team of researchers from Utah State University, University of California, Davis and Yale University are using a machine-learning approach to map landscape connectivity of the species Aedes aegypti, the so-called Yellow Fever mosquito, which is a primary vector for transmission of viruses causing dengue fever, chikungunya and Zika. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - February 22, 2021 Category: Biology Source Type: news
