Researchers at the Google-linked science company Verily are in the process of releasing 20 million sterile mosquitoes into the Fresno County, California, area in an attempt to actually stop the disease-carrying menaces from breeding. [1]
The yellow fever outbreak currently sweeping the jungles of Brazil could be the next Zika virus in the United States, health officials say. The Latin American country has seen an increase in the disease over the past few weeks in some of its rural areas. [1]
Health officials with the Pan American Health Organization have confirmed 371 cases of yellow fever, including 241 deaths. The group is investigating hundreds of other potential cases.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said this week that the Zika virus is “scarier than we initially thought.” The agency made a connection between Zika and microcephaly, a horrible birth defect that causes babies to be born with small heads and brains, in pregnant women. It also suspected that Zika causes Guillain-Barré, a nervous system disorder that can temporarily paralyze people and cause permanent brain damage.
Genetically modified mosquitoes designed to limit the spread of the Zika virus will likely soon be unleashed in the southern United States, as the federal government said today decided to permit a field test in the Florida Keys.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it had made a preliminary determination that the GM mosquitoes are unlikely to harm humans, animals, or the environment.
