Prevention And Prevention Of Mosquito Borne Diseases

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Each summer there are hundreds of news reports about mosquito-borne diseases and how people should protect themselves against these diseases. We wear bug spray to ward off mosquitos that may be infected and can spread diseases by their bite. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) keep track of the different types of mosquito-borne diseases that can spread to humans; Zika virus, West Nile virus, Chikungunya virus, Dengue, and Malaria. According to NIOSH, “Most people do not become sick after a bite from an infected mosquito, some people have a mild, short-term illness or (rarely) severe or long-term illness. Severe cases of mosquito-borne diseases can cause death.” With that in mind, mosquito-borne diseases are a considerably substantial concern for the world and the scientific community. Currently, the most recent threat of a mosquito-borne disease is the Zika virus; due to a global outbreak, new neurological symptoms in fetuses and new ways of transmission.

The Zika virus is scientifically classified under the family Flaviviridae and genus Flavivirus, this means it is a disease that is identified by its ability to be transmitted primarily to humans and others mammals through arthropods like mosquitos. This virus was originally sighted in and isolated, “from a sentinel rhesus monkey in the Zika forest of Uganda in 1947, and identified in human beings in 1952.” This information comes from an article in volume 16, issue 4, of The Lancet Infectious Diseases scholarly journal, called Zika virus and neurological disease—approaches to the unknown written by Tom Solomon, Matthew Baylis, and David Brown, printed in April 2016. Since its first sighting t...

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...erous studies James Crowe Jr., M.D., director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center discovered ZIKV-117. ZIKV-117 is a human monoclonal antibody. Crowe has tested this anti-body on mice and it has gotten positive results; “In mice infected by the Zika virus, injection of the antibody markedly reduced disease and mortality, and reduced transmission from mother to fetus.” (Vanderbilt) This antibody may one day prove to be the cure but for now there is not one.

Our world is filled with mysteries just like the Zika virus. The Zika virus is the first virus to spread sexually. It is really intriguing that we have known about this virus for almost 70 years but we have just began to learn about what it exactly. This only cause for question about what are we over looking that we be giving attention. A virus similar or worse than Zika could be the very undoing of the human race.

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