Mosquitoes can transmit viruses such as dengue, malaria, chikungunya, and Zika. They are a growing public health threat overseas and in the United States.
Rick Bowmer/Associated Press
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Rick Bowmer/Associated Press
Mosquitoes can transmit viruses such as dengue, malaria, chikungunya, and Zika. They are a growing public health threat overseas and in the United States.
Rick Bowmer/Associated Press
In the 1970s and 1980s, Aedes albopictus Mosquitoes have come to America Through used tire trading. These stowaway insects, also known as Asian tiger mosquitoes, can transmit viruses such as dengue, Zika, and chikungunya. They quickly adapted to city life. Southern, Eastern, Western United States.
Since then, globalization and climate change have made insects and the diseases they carry even more widespread around the world.
in 2 day workshop This week, at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington, DC, global public health experts warned that countries like the United States are unprepared for this imminent threat.
“If we don’t do anything, which is basically what we’re doing now, the situation will get much worse.” tom scottthe medical entomologist and professor emeritus at the University of California, Davis, said during the workshop. “The harm caused by the inaction is significant, unacceptable and unethical.”
This workshop focused on the threat of arboviruses, which are mosquito- and tick-borne viruses that can harm humans.
Tropical diseases once thought to be far away from the United States are beginning to exist. Localized cases of malaria and skin diseases caused by tropical parasites have occurred in the United States this year.a Zika fever outbreak Florida, Texas, and dengue fever in 2016-2017 spread locally It has been held annually in the United States for over 10 years.
For tropical disease researchers, the signs have long been clear.
“We’re not paying enough attention in the United States to what’s happening in other countries. We’re just watching the infection spread and preparing for the possibility that the virus could come to the United States.” I haven’t done that.” Laura Kramer, director of the Arbovirus Research Institute at the State University of New York at Albany, told workshop participants. “That happened with Zika, chikungunya, and West Nile.”
Researchers at the workshop said countries like the United States need to prepare for more tropical disease outbreaks expected. Global warming is expanding the range of some tropical insects and diseases.
But the United States has largely lost its ability to track insects. Erin Staples, a medical epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during the workshop that in 1927, each state had its own entomologist working on insect populations and malaria control.
“In 2022, where are we now? We have 16 state entomologists.” That means the state’s ability to monitor viruses like West Nile is poor. “We don’t have great information because we don’t maintain the infrastructure,” Staples said.
So what should the US do?
Public health researchers say Singapore is a shining example of mosquito control. The country has reduced the number of mosquitoes, which carry viruses such as dengue and Zika, by cleaning urban environments and teaching good habits from an early age. “My four-year-old daughter comes home and she talks about vector control because she learned about it in kindergarten,” said Lee Chin Ng from the Singapore Government Institute of Environmental Health.
Singapore also has an extensive and expensive surveillance program that tracks dengue cases in each neighborhood and issues telephone alerts when the number of cases is high. For Singapore residents, fine or prison sentence To hide mosquito breeding sites in your home. Peter DaszakThe chairman of the non-profit EcoHealth Alliance described Singapore’s approach as “carrot and stick”.
“I’m motivated.” [take action in Singapore,] Still, this approach may not work in other countries, such as the United States, where “since COVID-19 we have seen a backlash against any form of interference with people’s personal freedoms,” he said. Said.
Other tools may also work, such as the vaccines that currently exist for some of these diseases. And design cities in a way that prevents mosquitoes from entering.
