tropical diseases

The governor said the levels of EEE that have been discovered in mosquitoes is the highest in decades and said it is a major public health risk. Patrick said the state's department of public health will conduct the aerial sprays in Plymouth and Bristol counties beginning next week. To keep safe Patrick advises the public to use bug spray and wear long sleeve shirts and pants when outside.  

collaboration with Mumbai doctors, have indicated that men aged between 15 and 40 could be more likely to get malaria when infected by the parasite (via mosquito bites) than women in the same age group. The team analysed records of 30,000 patients who went to KEM and Kasturba hospitals with malaria-like symptoms between 2001 and 2005. They observed that a majority of the patients were men.  

In many cases, scientists acknowledge that the ecological scar left by a missing mosquito would heal quickly as the niche was filled by other organisms. Life would continue as before — or even better. When it comes to the major disease vectors, "it's difficult to see what the downside would be to removal, except for collateral damage", says insect ecologist Steven Juliano, of Illinois State University in Normal.  

parasite into the bodies of 18 adult mice and studied the reaction. They found clear sexual dimorphism – difference in the way the male and female animals respond to the infection. The research was published in the April 2010 edition of Malaria Journal, an online international journal that publishes papers on the mosquito-borne disease.  

Amid mounting evidence that this will be the worst summer for Eastern equine encephalitis in years, legislators from southeastern Massachusetts are pressuring the state to authorize aerial spraying and eradicate the local mosquito population. "I don't know what's holding them back," state Rep. Stephen R. Canessa, D-New Bedford, said. "We need to do this and do this quickly."  

Worried that resistance towards anti-malarial treatment may be responsible for the increased health complications and mortality rate in patients, the state has constituted a three-member team to conduct a speedy study. The team, consisting of a district malaria officer and two scientists, paid a visit to the city in March. It is scheduled to visit the city again in September.  

When a Palm Beach County family was plagued by a swarm of little black mosquitoes, county mosquito chief Ed Bradford knew to look for Aedes aegypti hiding in the house. "They were in the Waterpik," Bradford said. "The family hadn't used it in a while, I guess, and there was a little water left in it."  

Fewer mosquitoes are being found in traps in Middlesex County and central Massachusetts compared to last year and the requests by people for spraying are down as the recent dry weather has kept the population in check. But the state is starting to find more of the species of mosquitoes that spread West Nile virus and eastern equine encephalitis. And while the hot and dry conditions have lessened some fears about hordes of mosquitoes, that kind of weather could actually mean a worse breakout of West Nile  

A medical aid agency says increasing insecurity has forced it to stop work in a volatile part of southern Sudan. Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) said Friday gunmen robbed its staff and clinic in Gumuruk, in Jonglei state, three separate times in July. Twice, armed groups stole therapeutic ready-to-use food intended for malnourished children, and on the second occasion they also stole medical equipment. And in a third incident on July 27, three staff members were violently robbed a