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A Connecticut father died Monday — five years after he was bitten by an infected mosquito while clearing brush in his wooded backyard. Richard Pawulski, 49, was killed from complications of Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), a fatal disease that caused its first New York state death in nearly a decade last month — marking a startling resurgence that’s left health officials baffled. The mosquito-borne illness is a rare but “severe” disease that targets the brain, causing rapid physical deterioration and lifelong disabilities — if it doesn’t kill you first. “I’m not joking when I say your life can change in...

Climate change is exacerbating the risk of potentially dangerous mosquito-borne diseases in California — threatening to turn more of those annoying-but-harmless bites into severe illnesses, experts say. California already grapples with West Nile virus, a potentially deadly disease that was first detected in the state about two decades ago. But officials are now warning of a potential new foe: dengue, a viral infection that in the most serious cases can also lead to life-threatening complications. Until last year, all dengue cases reported in California were associated with people traveling to a country where the disease is common. But Los Angeles...

Two people in Southern California have come down with dengue fever without traveling outside the United States, where the mosquito-borne illness is rare, health officials said. A Pasadena resident was confirmed to have dengue last month but is recovering, officials said. “This is the first confirmed case of dengue in California not associated with travel and is instead an extremely rare case of local transmission in the continental United States,” the Pasadena Public Health Department announced. The case remains under investigation, but it appears that someone became infected with the dengue virus, returned home and was bitten by a mosquito...

Actor and comedian Rob Schneider shared an article announcing the EPA is set to release two billion GMO mosquitoes and questioned whether they’ll be injecting people with something when they “sting” people. “What could go wrong with releasing 2 BILLION GMO mosquitoes?!” he joked on X. “When they bite people what exactly is going to be mosquito-injected into people? Don’t worry… I’m sure the Government and Bill Gates have our best interests in mind.” The Children’s Health Defense (CHD) article Schneider posted explains, “GE mosquitoes created by biotechnology company Oxitec have been released in the U.S., even though the long-term...

A box full of genetically modified mosquitos successfully vaccinated a human against malaria in a trial funded by the National Institute of HealthThe study involved about 200 hungry mosquitos biting a human subject’s arm. Human participants placed their arms directly over a small box full of the bloodsuckers.“We use the mosquitoes like they’re 1,000 small flying syringes,” said researcher Dr. Sean Murphy, as reported by NPR.Three to five “vaccinations” took place over 30-day intervals.

June 26 (UPI) -- Health officials have recently detected five malaria cases in the United States, marking the first locally acquired mosquito-borne malaria to be diagnosed in the country in two decades. The handful of cases has prompted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue a warning to health officials and the public about the disease. Federal health officials warn there could be a rise in imported malaria cases this summer linked to increased international travel and the need for rapid access to IV artesunate, the first-line treatment for severe malaria in the country. Four of the...

Earlier this week, health officials reported that a Maricopa County resident recently contracted dengue, while routine surveillance has found traces of the dengue virus in at least one nearby mosquito population. These discoveries suggest that the infection could be spreading locally in the state for the first time, though the investigation is still ongoing. Maricopa County Department of Public Health (MCDPH) officials announced the human case of dengue on Monday, though no other details about the patient were provided. They also reported that the Maricopa County Environmental Services Department had detected the virus last month in samples taken from a...

Researchers at Rockefeller University in New York found people who have higher levels of certain acids on their skin are 100 times more attractive to the female Aedes aegypti, the type of mosquito responsible for spreading diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika. The findings, published Tuesday in the journal Cell, could lead to new products that could mask or alter certain human odors, making it harder for mosquitoes to find human blood and potentially curbing the spread of disease. SNIP Experts have found people seem to become more attractive to mosquitoes when they're pregnant or after they've...

Something prophetic about shape of Mosquito fire near Auburn, CA.

Scientists have been playing god with mosquitos for a couple of years now. Back in 2021, British company Oxitech released 750 million lab-modified mosquitos in Florida. Now, the company is gearing up to release another 2 billion genetically modified mosquitos across more of Florida and in California as well. The new species, codenames OX5034, is made up entirely of male mosquitos. The new species is derived from the Aeses aegypti family of mosquitos. Just like others the company has released, this new 2 billion should produce female larvae that die off before they reach adulthood. With the success of last...

An invasive species of mosquito from East Asia is slowly spreading throughout Italy and could serve as a vector for viruses, according to a new scientific report. An article in the Parasites & Vectors scientific journal last week claimed to have evidence that the concerning mosquitos, known as Aedes koreicus, have been expanding toward southwest Italy since being discovered in the north in 2011. Describing the mosquitos as a “potential vector of nematodes and viruses,” the article warned that their presence “has recently been reported in many regions of Europe,” and that in Italy, they “are now spreading towards the...

The British biotech company Oxitec is moving ahead with its controversial plan to release hundreds of millions of gene-hacked mosquitoes, an experimental new form of targeted pest control, in the Florida Keys.The goal is essentially to introduce a new genetically altered version of the Aedes aegypti mosquito — which can spread diseases like dengue and malaria — that can only hatch male, non-biting offspring, in order to gradually reduce the population.A connection that has gone mostly unremarked during the experiment’s rollout is the involvement of Microsoft co-founder and public health philanthropist Bill Gates in the funding of the company, confirmed...

Genetically modified mosquitoes have been released for the first time in the United States as part of an experiment to combat insect-borne diseases such as Dengue fever, yellow fever, and the Zika virus. UK-based biotechnology firm Oxitec, which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said it released the mosquitoes in six locations in Monroe County’s Florida Keys: two on Cudjoe Key, one on Ramrod Key, and three on Vaca Key. It’s part of an effort to help tackle a disease-transmitting invasive mosquito population—the Aedes aegypti mosquito species—that’s responsible for “virtually all mosquito-borne diseases transmitted to humans,” according...

Sophia Garabedian had been dealing with a persistent fever and painful headache when her parents found her unresponsive in her bed one morning last fall. Doctors ultimately diagnosed the then-5-year-old Sudbury, Massachusetts, resident with eastern equine encephalitis, a rare but severe mosquito-borne virus that causes brain swelling. Garabedian survived the potentially fatal virus after about a month in Boston hospitals, but her parents say her ordeal and ongoing recovery should be a warning as people take advantage of the outdoors this summer. “It’s been a rough year,” said David Garabedian, her father. “With any brain injury, it’s hard to tell....

KEY LARGO, Fla. — An 11th case of the mosquito-borned dengue fever has been confirmed in the Florida Keys, health officials said. So far, all 11 cases have been in Key Largo, including 8 cases the last week of June, the Florida Department of Health officials said Tuesday. Officials are “currently conducting epidemiological studies to determine the origin and extent of these infections,” Florida Keys spokeswoman Alison Kerr told the Miami Herald. The latest patient has been treated and is expected to make a complete recovery, Kerr said. Health department officials believe all of the cases were locally acquired, the...

According to a recent scientific study, the way to avoid mosquito bites is to listen to electronic music - specifically dubstep, specifically by US artist Skrillex. Sound is "crucial for reproduction, survival, and population maintenance of many animals," says a team of international scientists specialising in mosquitoes and the diseases they carry. They subjected adults of the species Aedes aegypti, known as the yellow fever mosquito, to electronic music to see whether it could work as a repellent. Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites, a track by Skrillex which features on his Grammy-award winning album of the same name, was chosen...

FULL TITLE: BUGGED OUT Deadly ‘super mosquitoes that are even tougher’ accidentally created by scientists after bungled experiment ============================================================ GENETICALLY modified mosquitoes that were designed by scientists to help populations decrease are actually thriving. This is according to new research that claims the plan to create gene-hacked mosquitoes that have offspring which die immediately has spectacularly backfired and now scientists don't know what will happen next. he modified mosquitoes were released in Jacobina in Brazil and were supposed to mix with the local population and decrease numbers with their weak offspring genetics. Although the wild population did plummet for a...

A fungus - genetically enhanced to produce spider toxin - can rapidly kill huge numbers of the mosquitoes that spread malaria, a study suggests. Trials, which took place in Burkina Faso, showed mosquito populations collapsed by 99% within 45 days. Conducting the study, researchers at the University of Maryland in the US - and the IRSS research institute in Burkina Faso - first identified a fungus called Metarhizium pingshaense, which naturally infects the Anopheles mosquitoes that spread malaria. The next stage was to enhance the fungus. They turned to a toxin found in the venom of a species of funnel-web...

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- A North Carolina city dealing with fallout from Hurricane Florence has been swarmed by aggressive mosquitoes nearly three times larger than regular mosquitoes. One resident, Robert Phillips, describes their rise as "a bad science fiction movie." North Carolina State University entomology professor Michael Reiskind told The Fayetteville Observer that Florence's floodwater has caused eggs for mosquito species such as the Psorophora ciliata to hatch. These mosquitoes, often called "gallinippers," are known for their painful bite and often lay eggs in low-lying damp areas. The eggs lie dormant in dry weather and hatch as adults following heavy rains....

The number of Americans sickened each year by bites from infected mosquitoes, ticks or fleas tripled from 2004 through 2016, with infection rates spiking sharply in 2016 as a result of a Zika outbreak, U.S. health officials said on Tuesday. Infections in 2016 went up 73 percent from 2015, reflecting the emergence of Zika, which is transmitted by mosquitoes and can cause severe birth defects. Zika was the most common disease borne by ticks, mosquitoes and fleas reported in 2016, with 41,680 cases reported, followed by Lyme disease, with 36,429 cases, almost double the number in 2004.