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Deadly Malaria Parasites Can Invade Your Cells

May 19, 2017mktgAdmin Austin Mosquito Control Dallas Mosquito Control Houston Mosquito Control Mosquito Control Mosquito Control Austin Mosquito Control Dallas Mosquito Control Houston Mosquito Control San Antonio San Antonio Mosquito Control Austin Mosquito Control Dallas Mosquito Control Houston Mosquito Control San Antonio Mosquito Control

Deadly Malaria Parasites Can Invade Your Cells

Mosquitoes are major killers. In fact, they are the most deadly types of creatures on the planet. Some people are more aware of that fact than others depending on where you live in the world. In just the past decade we have experienced multiple panics related to mosquito-borne disease. West Nile virus and the Zika virus are just a couple of bug-borne diseases that have pestered Americans. However, we here in America do not have to be on our guards as much against the mosquito-born virus known as malaria. However, many other nations in the world do have to worry about this virus, and to make it worse, researchers are learning that the malaria parasite is capable of using proteins to penetrate cell walls.

This knowledge on the nature of the malaria disease has only been recently discovered. Entomologists have recently constructed an insectarium in order to monitor the effects that bugs, or a lack of bugs, is having on the state of the planet, and various ecosystems. This institute grows malaria parasites in order to see how such parasites invade the human body, as well as other animals.

Once the researchers took note of how two separate parasites invaded a cell wall, they took samples of the proteins present during the cell invasion. Researchers had no idea that healthy cell walls could be invaded by parasites in this way, and for this reason, researchers are referring to this ability to invade cells as a “superpower”. Researchers believe that these two parasites could be targeted in order to develop more successful malaria vaccines and treatments.

The deadly parasites start their journey at the site of the bite, then the proteins are released. The proteins quickly make their way down to an infected individual’s liver cells, and this is the first major step towards infection. Eventually, the parasites will burst out of the liver only to infect the host’s blood. This could all be avoided if researchers could find some way of interrupting the process of parasitic cell invasion in an infected person’s liver.

Have you ever traveled to a country where you had to take special precautions as a result of the dangers of malaria?

Many US States Are Ramping Up Anti-Zika Measures

May 3, 2017mktgAdmin Austin Mosquito Control Dallas Mosquito Control Houston Mosquito Control Mosquito Control San Antonio Mosquito Control Austin Mosquito Control Dallas Mosquito Control Houston Mosquito Control San Antonio Mosquito Control

The warmer weather this year is already bringing more mosquitoes, but this year many states are going to be prepared for Zika. State health officials are adamant about stepping up their efforts to stamp out Zika despite a lack of certainty regarding federal funding for Zika research. During the year of 2016 federal health officials reported finding forty four cases of Zika in pregnant women throughout the country. There were also major outbreaks in South America, The Caribbean, Florida and Texas. A CDC report released earlier last month claimed that one out of every ten pregnant women with Zika gave birth to children with birth defects. Last year in the United States seventy seven babies died in the womb as a result of pregnant mothers contracting the virus. Dallas Mosquito Control

Last month federal health officials working at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta claimed that six states that were heavily affected with Zika will probably lose all of their Zika funding by the end of the summer. This is a big problem for many states because the millions of dollars that was allocated to these states for the purposes of Zika control were meant to be used over a period of five years. Now many state government leaders are wondering what can be done once funding runs out.

The United States Senate has introduced a bill that allows for another one hundred million dollars in funds to go to states fighting the spread of the Zika virus, but the bill has yet to be approved by both houses. Both Florida and Texas have been hit hard by the Zika virus. However, New York is actually the state that was hit second hardest by Zika when considering the over eleven hundred cases of the virus reported within the state.

How hard was your state hit by Zika last year? Do you expect the negative impact of the virus to be worse this year?

Texas Makes A Bold Move To Combat Zika

May 1, 2017mktgAdmin Austin Mosquito Control Dallas Mosquito Control Houston Mosquito Control Mosquito Control Mosquito Control Austin Mosquito Control Dallas Mosquito Control Houston Mosquito Control San Antonio San Antonio Mosquito Control Austin Mosquito Control Dallas Mosquito Control Houston Mosquito Control San Antonio Mosquito Control

The Zika virus has recently infected a resident of Alaska, so if you think your safe living in a northern state, you are wrong. The southern states, most notably Florida and Texas, are taking bold measures this year in order to make sure that the Zika virus keeps from spreading. There have been numerous Zika victims in both Florida and Texas, but Texas is trying something new to combat the spread of Zika. Beginning on May 1^st the Texas Board of Health and Human Services will include mosquito repellent within Medicaid benefits. This will allow every Medicaid recipient in Texas to have a free bottle of skeeter repellent in order to prevent the spread of the Zika virus and the West Nile virus.

This is also the first time that the state of Texas has extended their benefits to some boys and men. And all women between the ages of forty-five and fifty five will be given a free bottle of repellent no matter the circumstance. Eligible recipients can pick up their free bottle of repellent at any pharmacy in Texas, and without a prescription.

This benefit is for all pregnant women, women between the ages of ten and fifty-five and all males aged fourteen and up who are enrolled in Medicaid or other qualifying state-funded insurance programs. This benefit includes up to two cans of repellent per month, but this number could be even higher for residents that are living in areas that have been heavily affected by Zika.

State health officials are urging Texas residents to take as many precautions against mosquito bites as they can. For example, wearing long sleeves, using air conditioning, or making sure your window screens do not have any holes in them. Health officials in Texas are also urging residents to rid their foundations of any standing water that could attract mosquitoes.

Do you use mosquito repellent while spending time outdoors during the summer months?

Many Texans Are Worried About The Impact Of The Zika Virus In Their State

April 26, 2017mktgAdmin Austin Mosquito Control Dallas Mosquito Control Houston Mosquito Control Mosquito Control San Antonio Mosquito Control Mosquito Control

Of course you knew that Zika had hit South America and the Caribbean quite hard. And you most certainly knew about the risk of infection that is hanging over the heads of many Floridians. However, you may not have known that health officials in Texas are also worried about the virus’s impact in their state. So far there have already been several residents of Texas who have come down with the virus. At the moment, experts believe that the Rio Grande is the region in Texas that is at the most risk of being hit violently with Zika.

More than 1.3 million people live near the Rio Grande. Many of the residents living near the Rio Grande are poor and are living in areas where the Zika carrying mosquito is bound to thrive and reproduce in abundance. Many of the houses don’t have window screens or air conditioning, and standing water is common.

According to Joseph McCormick, the regional dean at the University of Texas School of Public Health, the poorest people will pay the highest price. Much like in South America, the poorest regions are also regions where the Zika carrying mosquito prefers to breed.

Ten cases of Zika have already been documented in the state of Texas this year, and there were a total of three hundred and twenty cases documented during the prior two years. Around two hundred and fifty women and children in Texas have shown signs of having the virus, and all those documented cases have been reported to the Federal Zika Pregnancy Registry. Last November the state of Texas saw its first locally transmitted case of Zika in Brownsville. This led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to classify Brownsville as a “cautionary area”.

Do you believe that you have valid reason to fear the Zika virus?

Zika virus travel advice

March 28, 2017mktgAdmin Austin Mosquito Control Dallas Mosquito Control Houston Mosquito Control San Antonio Mosquito Control

As of March in United States alone there have been over 5 thousand registered Zika cases. The good news is that over 90 percent of these cases are travel-associated, meaning that these people have been infected during their time abroad and have gotten sick upon their return to the United States. But this also shows that people are not as careful as they should be in avoiding Zika while traveling. So here are some travel tips that will help you avoid getting Zika virus if you are traveling to one of the Zika virus affected areas.

Since there still isn’t a vaccine to prevent or to treat Zika virus, travelers need to be extra careful about their mosquito control, because it essentially is the only way to ensure that you don’t get Zika virus. When traveling to any of the Zika affected areas the first line of defense will be your clothing. One of the ways how mosquitoes are able to detect their targets is heat, which is why light colored clothing will be your best friend. Dark clothes absorb more heat than light clothing making it much more appealing to mosquitoes, which is why light-colored duds can make you less of a lure to mosquitoes. On top of that if you are wearing light colored long sleeve shirt and long pants, the clothing will also create a barrier between your skin and the mosquito, further ensuring that it cannot bite you and you are safe.

The second thing that you can do to avoid Zika virus is to know the habits of mosquitoes that carry this virus. As you might already know, insects responsible for Zika virus are the Aedes genus mosquitoes, like for example the Yellow fever mosquito. Most genus mosquitoes are the most active during dusk and dawn, spending their days hiding in dark places, but not Aedes mosquitoes. They prefer doing their hunting in daytime, which means that people naturally have a higher chance to get bitten by this mosquito during the day. Fortunately, Aedes genus mosquitoes are quite distinguishable in their looks, so you will be able to differ them from other insects. All Aedes genus mosquitoes gave dark bodies and legs with white striped markings on them, similar to tiger markings, making them look more intimidating but also better recognizable, so you can avoid them more easily.

And lastly don’t forget to use mosquito repellent. Even though most governments of affected areas do frequent mosquito fogger sprayings to eradicate the Zika carrying mosquitoes, these treatments are not enough to keep you 100% safe. Mosquito experts all over the world agree that the most efficient mosquito repellent is DEET, and none of the natural repellents can replace it. However, if you are against DEET then choose a repellent with oil of lemon eucalyptus in it, which is the closest you will get to natural DEET replacement. And remember to reapply your mosquito repellent frequently, too, because one of the most common mistakes that people make in regards to bug spray is that they apply the repellent once and hope that it will last for the whole day. But the truth is that most repellents are efficient for only a couple of hours, after which the repellent needs to be reapplied to maintain its mosquito repelling abilities.

So if you are traveling to any of the Zika virus affected areas make sure you wear long and light colored clothing to make yourself less attractive and your skin less accessible to mosquitoes, know the mosquito habits so you know when to use your insect repellent and reapply the repellent often to ensure the best possible protection against Zika virus.

Why Latin America Experiences The Worst Of Mosquito-Borne Diseases

March 15, 2017Austin Mosquito Control Dallas Mosquito Control Houston Mosquito Control San Antonio Mosquito Control

Latin American is well known for their outbreaks of mosquito-borne disease. Most people are familiar with dengue fever and the West Nile virus, and unless you have been living under a rock for the past couple of years, the Zika virus has caused tremendous devastation in Latin America. Chikungunya is another fairly well known mosquito-borne disease that is most prevalent in South America. However, it is the two diseases that are known as Eastern equine encephalitis and mayoro that do not appear in the news quite as often, yet still cost many Latin American citizens their lives. So why is Latin America more prone to experiencing mosquito-borne epidemics than the rest of the world?

One of the primary reasons why Latin American is such a hotspot for the spread of mosquito-borne disease has to due with the many different and numerous species of mosquitoes that inhabit this region of the world. Eight hundred and sixty two different species of mosquito can be found in South America. While four hundred and sixty two different species of mosquito can be found in Central America, and only one hundred and ninety two in North America. In addition to the high number of different mosquito species in Latin America there also exists a large amount of hosts present in the region that a disease carrying mosquito can infect.

Global warming is another reported reason for why rates of mosquito-borne disease are higher in Latin America. Since mosquitoes require external sources of heat in order to remain at a comfortable temperature, and mosquitoes are highly dependent on the climate for proper functioning, then mosquitoes may prefer and thrive in certain climatic conditions. The relationship between warming climates and the physiological functioning of mosquitoes is complex, but many scientists agree that the increasingly hot and humid climate in South America may be closely related to the rates of reported cases of mosquito-borne disease.

Do you think that there are any other countries that are hit as hard as Latin America when it comes to insect-borne epidemics? Is it possible that some countries may not report as many cases?

How Much Do You Really Know About Yellow Fever?

March 7, 2017Austin Mosquito Control Dallas Mosquito Control Houston Mosquito Control San Antonio Mosquito Control

Spring is almost here, which means the mosquitos that are currently spreading an absurd number of illnesses to humans, are going to be coming out in full swing. This is also when they mate, which means those females will be looking for tasty human blood for their precious little eggs that are probably chilling out in a watering can or shallow puddle in your very own yard. Now, while most of the 200,000 cases of yellow fever that crop up each year, 90% of them occur in Africa. Out of those cases approximately 30,000 end in death.

However, the mosquito that transmits yellow fever is the same one that has been passing along the Zika virus for the past year, the Aedes aegypti mosquito. The number of aedes mosquitos in the U.S. has been growing steadily every year, as has the number of yellow fever cases, so don’t fool yourself into thinking it couldn’t possibly happen to you. Now, a vaccine was developed, but most people don’t get it unless they are taking a trip to a country like Africa where the threat of contracting it is much greater. The biggest problem with a mosquito-borne disease like yellow fever is that one person can be bitten by a mosquito abroad and contract the illness, but then once they return home local mosquitos then contract it by drinking that person’s blood and then pass it on to other humans. So, it’s not difficult for this disease to travel vast distances.

So, how do you know if you’ve caught yellow fever? Symptoms tend to appear around 3 to 6 days after a person has been infected. Initial symptoms include dizziness, headache, nausea, vomiting, fever, loss of appetite, and muscle aches. These will generally go away in just a few days. However, there is a second stage called the toxic stage that around 15% of patients also develop. These more severe symptoms such as recurring fever, abdominal pain, bloody vomit, kidney failure, liver failure, jaundice, delirium, and number of other that, along with the ones I mentioned, can turn fatal for 20% to 50% of those that enter the toxic stage. And treatment doesn’t include much more than simply trying to keep the patient hydrated, in a stable condition, and as comfortable as they can be.

The lesson here is to not even chance getting bitten by mosquitos in this world, because God knows, yellow fever is just one of the many prizes you could get. I’d definitely rather deal with an icky smell and sticky skin than any of those symptoms I described above.

Have you or anyone you know ever gotten yellow fever? What was it like and how did they or you come out the other side?

Health Officials In Washington DC Mishandle Zika Specimens

February 20, 2017mktgAdmin Austin Mosquito Control Dallas Mosquito Control Houston Mosquito Control Mosquito Control San Antonio Mosquito Control Austin Mosquito Control Dallas Mosquito Control Houston Mosquito Control San Antonio Mosquito Control

Health Officials In Washington DC Mishandle Zika Specimens Dallas Mosquito Control

The public was recently made aware that health officials in Washington DC messed made a huge mistake by mishandling Zika specimens collected from over four hundred people. The botched study has resulted in two women being told that they did not have the Zika virus when they, in fact, did have the virus.

Of the four hundred specimens collected from test subjects, three hundred of the subjects were pregnant women. Health officials are worried that more than just two women may be under the impression that they have not contracted the virus when they actually have. So health officials are currently trying to determine the final number of women who have been incorrectly told that they do not have the Zika virus.

The botched study has been blamed on a mathematical error on the part of lab workers. The mishandled specimens are being sent to the CDC for proper testing.

Have you ever been worried that you had contracted an insect-borne illness despite doctors insisting that you had not?

An Infant From Texas Was Born With Microcephaly And The Zika Virus

January 9, 2017mktgAdmin Austin Mosquito Control Dallas Mosquito Control Houston Mosquito Control Mosquito Control Mosquito Control Austin Mosquito Control Dallas Mosquito Control Houston Mosquito Control San Antonio San Antonio Mosquito Control Austin Mosquito Control Dallas Mosquito Control Houston Mosquito Control San Antonio Mosquito Control

Public health officials based in Austin, Texas have confirmed that an infant born last September in Travis County has the Zika virus as well as microcephaly. This particular case is the first confirmed case of congenital transmission of the Zika virus in Travis County. However, experts do not believe that the infant became infected via local transmission.

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The infant’s mother relocated to the United States from Central America last August. The majority of the woman’s pregnancy was spent in Central America. Apparently the mother complained of Zika related symptoms early in her pregnancy.

As of December 30th, 2016 two hundred and ninety four cases of Zika related illness has been reported in the state of Texas. Included in that large number are twenty pregnant women, and two infants infected before birth.

Do you think that it is like it is probable that the Zika virus will start infecting people that live north of Texas and Florida?

World’s First Chikungunya Vaccine Developed

January 2, 2017Austin Mosquito Control Dallas Mosquito Control Houston Mosquito Control San Antonio Mosquito Control

Researchers from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have recently developed the first vaccine for Chikungunya that is safe for use on people, as well as effective. The vaccine was created from an insect-specific virus, meaning it is the chikungunya virus that infects insects only and not the form that infects humans. This completely removes any danger of people accidentally catching the virus through the vaccine. While it hasn’t yet been tested on people, the vaccine produced a strong immune defense very quickly and was completely successful at protecting mice and nonhuman primates from catching the virus.

Chikungunya is one of many mosquito-borne viruses, with symptoms including fever, severe joint paint, headache, muscle pain, swelling of the joints, and a rash. Patients will sometimes feel better within as little as a week, but many people develop other long-term health issues such as joint pain that last for years.

What makes this new vaccine so impressive, and could possibly revolutionize the way we create vaccines in the future, is that is it not made from the actual virus the way most vaccines are. With traditional vaccines researchers have to often balance safety and effectiveness by choosing whether to create a vaccine out of a weakened form of the live pathogen, which is more effective, but less safe, or create the vaccine out of an inactivated pathogen, which is more safe, but not nearly as effective in its protection, usually then requiring several doses of the vaccine.

For this new vaccine, researchers used Eilat virus, the form of chikungunya that only infects insects, as the platform for the vaccine. The researchers from UTMB used the Eilat virus to develop a “hybrid virus-based vaccine containing chikungunya structural proteins.” This allowed them to design a strong vaccine that elicited a quick and strong immune response, without leaving any evidence of the virus in test primate’s blood or symptoms of the disease. This is huge people!

How do you think this new method of developing vaccines with these clone viruses will change how we develop vaccines in the future? Could this speed up the development of vaccines in general?

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