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New mosquito-borne disease emerges in Haiti |
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LOPPER
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Posted: September 18 2016 at 3:45pm |
University of Florida researchers have identified a patient in Haiti with a serious mosquito-borne illness that has never before been reported in the Caribbean nation. Known as “Mayaro virus,” it is closely related to chikungunya virus and was first isolated in Trinidad in 1954. Most reported cases, however, have been confined to small outbreaks in the Amazon. Whether this case signals the start of a new outbreak in the Caribbean region is currently unknown. “While current attention has been focused on the Zika virus, the finding of yet another mosquito-borne virus which may be starting to circulate in the Caribbean is of concern,” said Glenn Morris, M.D., M.P.H., director of the UF Emerging Pathogens Institute. “Hopefully we will not see the same massive epidemics that we saw with chikungunya, dengue and now Zika. However, these findings underscore the fact that there are additional viruses ‘waiting in the wings’ that may pose threats in the future, and for which we need to be watching.” https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/09/160915164905.htm - https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20...164905.htm
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Dutch Josh
Adviser Group Joined: May 01 2013 Location: Arnhem-Netherla Status: Offline Points: 94057 |
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http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article102113052.html
There is a new mosquito-borne illness in Haiti. Infectious disease specialists at the University of Florida say they have confirmed the existence of the Mayaro virus in a patient in Haiti. The virus is closely related to the chikungunya virus but researchers say they do not yet know if it’s caused by the same Aedes aegypti mosquito that’s been linked to chikungunya and the Zika virus. “We are not sure,” said Dr. John Lednicky, a University of Florida associate professor in the environmental and global health department of the College of Public Health and Health Professions. “Many different mosquitoes can carry the same virus.” Lednicky, who runs UF’s laboratory in Haiti, said the Mayaro virus first was found in Trinidad and Tobago in 1954, and has been causing outbreaks in South America, mainly in the Amazon. It causes similar symptoms to chikungunya: fever, joint and muscle pain, rashes and abdominal pain. “One can say it’s as bad as chikungunya, but there is so little information available,” he said. “Maybe it’s been in Haiti this whole time and no one checked for it.” Whether the confirmed case signals the start of a new outbreak in the Caribbean region, researchers do not know, Lednicky said. Nor do they know if the virus is going to be widespread in Haiti where the Zika virus has been difficult to track because of the country’sweak health system. - It was Lednicky and his team of researchers who earlier this year announced that the Zika virus had been present in the hemisphere months before it was confirmed in Brazil in March 2015. It was in Haiti as early as 2014, they said, citing blood samples collected in December 2014. The lab had begun monitoring chikungunya fever cases after its April 2014 outbreak in Haiti and had collected blood samples from schoolchildren in the Gressier/Leogane region, southwest of Port-au-Prince, where the laboratory is located. Lednicky said the new Mayaro virus is different from what they found in 2014. “The virus we detected is genetically different from the ones that have been described recently in Brazil, and we don’t know yet if it is unique to Haiti or if it is a recombinant strain from different types of Mayaro viruses,” he said. |
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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
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Dutch Josh
Adviser Group Joined: May 01 2013 Location: Arnhem-Netherla Status: Offline Points: 94057 |
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3309675/
Earlier reports indicate the mayaro-virus did reach central America already in 2012 9http://www.tvn-2.com/nacionales/Nuevo-virus-Mayaro-transmitido-Aedes-Aegypti-llega-a-Panama_0_4466553345.html). Did tourists from the Amazon spread the virus to Central America ? See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayaro_virus_disease
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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
~Albert Einstein |
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EdwinSm,
Moderator Joined: April 03 2013 Status: Offline Points: 24065 |
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I know its not the flu but this year we seem to be having move news about " mosquito-borne illness". I wonder how this will all play out - maybe not one big slate-wiper (that this site is looking out for), but lots of different illnesses each making a different (?) local splash.
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Dutch Josh
Adviser Group Joined: May 01 2013 Location: Arnhem-Netherla Status: Offline Points: 94057 |
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Climate change means mosquitos move their habitat. So the illnesses they spread find new feedinggrounds. Of course mosquitos also bite and infect other mammals than humans.
Due to fast climate change, animals adept slower to those changes, some animals become weak and more vulnarable for all kind of disease. Those diseases themselves can spread or get spread by insects. Ticks, mosquitos, fleas but proberbly much more insects will spread disease in a larger area. Zika is just the beginning of this patern. The mayaro-virus also will spread. Storms can pick up groups of infected mosquitos and put them in a place were you would not expect them. Will a hurricane transport mosquitos from Haïti to other Islands in the region or Florida ?
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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
~Albert Einstein |
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Dutch Josh
Adviser Group Joined: May 01 2013 Location: Arnhem-Netherla Status: Offline Points: 94057 |
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https://www.dwhc.nl/en/usutu-virus-nederland/
Usutu virus detected for the first time in blackbirds and great grey owls in the Netherlands.Usutu virus was recently detected for the first time in the Netherlands but has been circulating in Europe for some time. To-date it has been identified in captive great grey owls (Strix nebulosa) and in living and dead blackbirds (Turdus merula). These findings have been reported by several research organisations including the DWHC and the Erasmus Medical Centre. - PeopleOn very rare occasions Usutu virus has caused disease in humans: it is transmitted by mosquitoes, predominantly those belonging to the genus Culex. In Europe to-date there have been only five human cases of Usutu virus reported, despite large-scale outbreaks in bird populations. Three of these cases involved immune suppressed patients. |
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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
~Albert Einstein |
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