Great, now Florida has a mosquito that can transmit yellow fever

Florida scientists have confirmed that there is a new breed of mosquitoes in town that can transmit a very dangerous set of diseases, including yellow fever. And while it’s only in two counties in the state at the moment, a new document says that its range could expand across the Sunshine State.

The new mosquito is known as Aedes scapularis, and its usual habitat is the tropics, extending throughout Central America and to parts of South America and the Caribbean. However, there is only one recorded case of it in Florida, when larval samples were found in the middle of the Florida Keys in 1945.

But in 2019, entomologists at the University of Florida found specimens of this skeeter during a sample collection in the Everglades. In a study conducted last year, scientists confirmed that mosquitoes were present in healthy numbers in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Now in a follow-up paper, published this month in the journal Insects, scientists are using environmental modeling to project that Aedes scapularis could spread along the Florida coast.

In its usual habitat, Aedes scapularis has been linked to a number of serious illnesses, including yellow fever, which is virtually eradicated in the United States; the last epidemic was in New Orleans in 1905. Mosquitoes are also feared to like Aedes scapularis, which likes to bite both humans and animals, could trigger what are known as contagion events. These occur when diseases spread from one species to another, in the same way that covid-19 was probably first transmitted to humans from animals. (To be clear, the mosquito is not a known transmitter of covid-19, so at least Floridians don’t have to worry about that.)

New research shows that Aedes scapularis likely reached Florida through human travel and trade, but climate change could play a role in its spread throughout the peninsula. Warmer temperatures will allow the bug to spread north. Although no cases of yellow fever have been detected where the mosquito is found, they are known to carry the disease in their home range, increasing the risk they could in Florida. .

It’s a familiar story, as rising temperatures allow mosquitoes that carry disease to move to the poles. The Recently found Lancet that warmer temperatures were responsible for the spread of dengue fever to new places; 2018 was the second worst year for the spread of dengue fever since record keeping began, and nine of the worst 10 years have been since 2000. Aedes aegypti, infected more than 50 people with the disease last summer. Research on mosquitoes that can transmit Zika virus has reached similar conclusions.

Scientists have also warned that the increasingly close contact between humans and nature increases the risk of new contagion events where animal diseases increasingly find human hosts. Results released last year show that spending just $ 40 to $ 58 billion a year could help prevent dangerous disease outbreaks, which is a fraction of the cost of a major epidemic.

Hopefully we don’t see another mosquito-induced public health crisis in the wake of this never-ending pandemic. But if you’re planning on going to Disney World after getting vaccinated this summer, be sure to pack bug spray just in case.