Dengue outbreak 2017 - How lucky can we get?

[ericlp]

http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda...o-olympics

Out of those 457 people tested, 32 people came back with antibodies to mosquito-borne viruses they hadn't had in their blood before: Three for chikungunya, two for dengue and 27 for West Nile virus.

So... My question of the day is......

Are we going to have a repeat dengue outbreak for this Ironman when people start coming from all over the world again carrying these viruses?

Are we doing anything differently this year from last year? Or are we just gonna hang up rabbit's feet, cross fingers, say some religious words and hope for the best?

Will be interesting to say the least.

[leilanidude]

People come here from all over the world, every single day of the year, already.

[kalakoa]

If only there were a way to eliminate the mosquitos that spread these diseases.

Oh, wait! The technology exists! They're using it in the first world!

If only there were a way to get the State to spend my tax dollars on something that would benefit the public...

[Midnight Rambler]

Not only that, people from here come back from all over the world every single day.

[DTisme]

I see a LOT less mosquitoes these days, so maybe some effort is going on that's lessened the population?

[Chunkster]

I would guess that the reduced mosquito population is the result of lower rainfall rather than any effort on the part of the local or state governments. They're not good at the concept of "effort" anyway.

[DTisme]

Good point, Chunkster.

[PaulW]

You don't hear much about Zika anymore, but we still all have to be careful not to bring it to Hawaii.

[rainyjim]

There are some great methods of eliminating mosquitoes!

The three I believe have the greatest potential seem to be:

(1) introduction of mosquitoes infected with a Wolbachia bacterium that makes their offspring infertile.

(2) introduction of sterile males (a wide variety of methods are used to sterilize).

(3) introduction of CRISPR-Cas gene edited mosquitoes with gene drives.

A lot of this has limited testing outside the laboratory but you can look at Oxitec's (UK) work in the Florida Key's for some reference.

I always thought Hawaii was the best place to attempt mosquito eradication due to mosquitoes being an introduced invasive species.