"Weather can be a major influence on spread of Zika virus and the life cycle of its mosquito host, especially in areas with warm weather and high humidity. Therefore, in the United States, the virus poses a higher risk in southern areas...."
April 14, 2016
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"According to Hoffmann, the occurrence of high winds, flooding, tropical storms and hurricanes may help reduce the infected mosquito populations."
Well, there's one good reason to hope for a hurricane this year.
If you're in the roofing business, that's two reasons.
The mosquito population seems much higher here this summer. They are thick about my house, and I live downtown. Some years I don't notice them, I don't get bitten. Not so much this year.
Puerto Rico is experiencing locally generated Zika infections now. I think it's only a matter of time before we see it here.
Bring your Skin So Soft with you.
A lot of people forget about those wetlands to the south of NYC in northern New Jersey. Everything shows up there.
Still, if one is not a younger woman planning to become pregnant, or involved with one, it is best not to worry about the Zika. It will come, it will become endemic, a few people will die, a few hundreds to a thousand or so will have serious illness. But then, like WNV, we will acquire immunities.
If you are a woman in her thirties trying to become pregnant with your first child, this really, really sucks.
traditionalguy, one time at a golf outing, the mosquitoes were vicious. One of our foursome said, "I have Skin So Soft."
Funniest thing I ever heard on a golf course.
Looks like the mid-Hudson bridge from now on.
Lauderdale Vet said...
The mosquito population seems much higher here this summer.
Thanks for bringing this report back to us from the future. Let us know how the killing of Hitler turns out.
DDT.
Intrexon has a gene that kills these bugs. XON.
PANIC!! - but then remember that although this is the variety of mosquito that can carry the Zika virus, there is no evidence that any US mosquitos do or ever have done so.
Individual mosquitos don't travel far, so the only risk is if infected people in the US get bitten by mosquitos that go on to bite others.
> Thanks for bringing this report back to us from the future.
Sorry, I forgot it's still cold up North. I'm harvesting the last batch of Spring things down here, and will be planting my summer sweet potatoes soon enough.
Intrexon sort of stepped into the spotlight with its almost Nostradamus-like acquisition of Oxitec last summer, which has a myriad of global disease programs in development, including one to combat mosquito-borne viruses like Zika and dengue. Intrexon's solution is to genetically modify male mosquitoes to pass along a gene to the next-generation of mosquitoes that will kill them before reaching the reproductive adult stage. The end result should be a dramatic reduction in the mosquito population, and a correlative drop in mosquito-borne viruses."
From The Motley Fool
Obviously, the thing to do is re-open the shuttered abortion clinics.
Even the Pope has recommended condoms! My world has ended...
Nice map. "especially in areas with warm weather and high humidity"
Apparently they are unaware that most of the southwest is a desert.
It looks like the dividing line is just south of me, here in the lower Hudson Valley.
I guess the wife and I are going to Toronto this summer.
Farmer, farmer, put away the DDT now...
There are three pregnant women in my immediate and extended family circle who aren't due until fall and winter. I'm relieved they don't live in the affected areas, but worry about what a hot humid summer in the middle northern states would bring.
Individually, Deep Woods OFF
Collectively, DDT
Hugh Hewitt suggested giving a $1B and 100 year patent to who ever develops a safe and effective vaccine.
Study problem. Compare the risks of mosquito borne Zika infection with the risk of an act of terrorism while traveling abroad.
Don't leave your house and while home be careful to not fall and fracture a hip.
If forced to leave your house be wary of tragedy at the hands of an intoxicated motorist.
Remain in utero.
Griffin Securities
"Anvisa has granted a temporary registration for the OX513A mosquitoes. This decision by Brazil’s equivalent to the U.S. FDA comes as the country faces the dire threat of a Zika virus epidemic. Oxitec’s genetically modified mosquitoes offer a species-specific approach to reducing the mosquito population that carries the Zika, dengue, and chikungunya viruses. Based on the rapidity with which the mosquito has spread the dengue virus within the Brazilian population in the past ten years, the government is taking the Zika virus seriously, because the infection is associated with onset of the neuro-muscular disorder Guillain-Barre syndrome and especially because of the threat of abnormal fetal development, resulting in microcephaly. As a result, Anvisa expedited the creation of new rules enabling a regulatory framework for approval of OX513A and similar products in the future."
The vector for Zika is the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which also spreads yellow fever, dengue, and Chikungunya. In the 18th and 19th centuries (when we are told that the weather was cooler than these days), Montreal and Quebec used to have occasional outbreaks of yellow fever. The map of the range of A. aegypti should be seen more as a range of probability.
I never realized the desert Southwest of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and West Texas were such havens for mosquitoes. It almost looks as if Ulysses S. Grant drew this particular cautionary map.
Have they determined how long the bites last? If you have to actually be pregnant when bitten that's one thing. But if the virus lasts and causes the same effect if you become pregnant later on that's vastly more concerning.
The microcephaly cuts down on water (and wind) resistance, so it should be a boon to future swimmers and divers. Like Connie Conehead, but better.
Have they determined how long the bites last?
Well, "we" know the Zika virus persists in semen, so perhaps the Red Map is meant to caution women about areas where both mosquitoes and mobile men who may have previously lain with mosquitoes might be encountered.
DDT the red zones immediately upon spring warming and maybe once again during the summer. Or not. I don't really care.
Zika virus? I'd worry more about Hillary being president: dhe death rate will be so much higher with her in office than with mere disease carrying mosquitoes flitting about the land.
"Bring your Skin So Soft with you."
That was the source of my "bought Avon products" answer on the "bubble quiz."
It works on Alaska mosquitoes when nothing else will.
"That was the source of my "bought Avon products" answer"
same here
My summer driving trip is going to be to northern NY state researching family history. Fortunately, it is far enough from NY City that I won't require decontamination when I get home.
No mosquitoes, I hope, but Alaska is not an encouraging example.
For most of my life, I was a mosquito magnet. I was the one getting stung when nobody else was. About ten years ago, I became the mosquito repellent. They don't get me when everyone else is getting eaten.
Now, there are a few possible explanations:
1) I am still being bitten, but the allergy to the bite is no longer noticeable (and I take allergy medicine).
2) I have become so acerbic that even mosquitoes stay away.
3) Random luck!
#1 seems the most plausible, but #2 could prove correct, with the help of a few biologists. #3 seems like dodging raindrops in Seattle.
Well, I guess that could account for brain damage in Confederate regions from here on out, but how to account for the last two hundred years?
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