Scientists develop new tool to target mosquito-borne Zika virus

May 24, 2018

Original Title: aegypti_682sRGB.TIF — 2005 James Gathany This 2005 photograph depicts a female *Aedes aegypti* mosquito, which is the primary vector for the spread of Dengue fever, The responsible virus that causes Dengue is maintained in the mosquito’s life cycle, and involves humans to whom the virus is transmitted when bitten. The female mosquito pictured here, is shown as she was obtaining a blood meal by inserting the feeding stylet through the skin, and into a blood vessel. Blood can be seen being drawn up through the stylet, and into the mosquito’s mouth. *Aedes aegypti* is a domestic, day-biting mosquito that prefers to feed on humans; Dengue is spread by the female *A. aegypti* only, for the male does not bite. Infection with dengue viruses produces a spectrum of clinical illness ranging from a nonspecific viral syndrome to severe and fatal hemorrhagic disease.
Important risk factors for DHF include the strain and serotype of the infecting virus, as well as the age, immune status, and genetic predisposition of the patient. Primarily a disease of the tropics, Dengue fever is an infectious disease carried by mosquitoes, and is caused by any of four related dengue viruses: DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3, and DEN-4. This disease used to be called “break-bone” fever because it sometimes causes severe joint and muscle pain. A person can be infected by at least two, if not all four types at different times during a life span, but only once by the same type.

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Dr Maggy Sikulu-Lord, a University of Queensland researcher, on Thursday, said scientists have developed cheap tool that could rapidly identify mosquitoes infected with the dangerous Zika virus.

Sikulu-Lord, who developed the tool with colleagues in Brazil, said in a statement that “we can now quickly identify mosquitoes that are infected with the Zika virus, so public health authourities can treat affected areas before the disease spreads to humans.

“This is definitely going to be a game-changer in disease surveillance, especially in the prediction of disease outbreaks.”

Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that can cause dengue fever-like symptoms and brain abnormalities in unborn babies.

It has also been linked to the paralysing Guillain-Barré syndrome.

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The new tool, touted as 18 times faster and 110 times cheaper than the current detection method, only involves shining a beam of light onto mosquitoes and using that information to determine if the mosquito is infected, Sikulu-Lord said.

He explained that the technology had the potential to detect a number of diseases too, noting that
“we have so far achieved a 94 to 99 per cent accuracy rate in identifying infected mosquitoes under laboratory conditions in Brazil.

“We hope to have results for detecting dengue and malaria in mosquitoes in the next few months.

“We don’t think it will eradicate diseases but it will give us the ability to detect diseases quickly so that we can stop disease outbreaks.”

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