Virus carrying a mosquito found in Bosque around the city

………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ……….

Lyre-shaped markings are characteristic of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which has only recently been found in the bosque of Bernalillo County. The mosquito is a vector of many viruses. (Photo courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

ALBUQUERQUE, NM – It is possible, although unlikely, that Albuquerque will in future report cases of yellow fever, dengue, Zika, Chikungunya and other viruses, now that the Aedes aegypti mosquito has been discovered in Bernalillo County.

Mark Dimenna, deputy director of the Albuquerque Environmental Health Department and Microbiologist, said Tuesday that Aedes aegypti had only recently been discovered during a regular mosquito collection around the world. Bosque.

"He is able to transmit any of these viruses, but they need mosquito vectors that are competent for transmission," he said. "What's missing is the active presence of these viruses. You must have the virus and the vector. So now we have the vector, but not the virus. "

Dengue fever, said Dimenna, has already been found in the border regions of New Mexico, Texas and Mexico.

"Texas will occasionally see dengue fever among people who have been to Mexico, so when we see dengue fever here, it's a case of travel, people who have gone to a country where it is present and who is have contracted. "

Aedes aegypti, whose common name is the yellow fever mosquito, is essentially a tropical mosquito that has spread for a very long time and migrates north. Reports from the southeastern United States report a chronic yellow fever dating back to the nineteenth century.

Climate change and global warming may play a minor role in creating 'some more suitable habitats for the long-term establishment' of the mosquito, but, because of the mosquito's tropical origins, 'we do not know not even if it will survive winter in Bernalillo County, and we may not find it again in the spring. "

To be clear, said Dimenna, in recent years, we have already found Aedes aegypti in the counties of Chaves, Curry, Doña Ana, Eddy, Guadalupe, Hidalgo, Lea, Luna, Otero, Quay, Roosevelt, Sierra , Socorro and Valencia. The state Department of Health has strengthened surveillance in these counties due to concerns about the Zika virus.

"They may have found Aedes aegypti in New Mexico counties where they had never seen it before because they were not looking for it," he said. "But in Bernalillo County we were looking for it, so we know we did not have it until this year."

The Albuquerque Environmental Health Department regularly catches mosquitoes for West Nile virus "and, in doing so, we found Aedes aegypti," he said. "We thought that he would eventually arrive in Bernalillo County."