Pest & Termite Control Blog

A New Mosquito Emoji May Help Raise Mosquito-Borne Disease Awareness

If there is one modern fad that past generations would never have seen coming, then it would have to be the current obsession with emojis. Text messaging, whether it is on your phone, facebook, email or any other type of messaging service, often consists of sentences followed by emojis. It seems like emojis are everywhere these days. The modern obsession with emojis has even led to a major motion picture featuring walking-talking emojis. As it happens, the recent emoji movie did not make much money, so maybe there is a limit to acceptable emoji exposure after all. However, people’s enthusiasm for emojis can be used to benefit mankind. For example, sometime during the summer of 2018, the Unicode Consortium will release a mosquito emoji in order to raise mosquito-borne disease awareness.

The mosquito is not the first animal to be made into an emoji. For example, butterflies and bees are two other insects that have earned their own emoji. Whales and rabbits have also been made into emojis. Surprisingly, well educated scientific researchers believe that the existence of a mosquito emoji could help to spread awareness concerning the dangers posed by mosquitoes. The Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have both promoted the idea of a mosquito emoji as a method of spreading awareness about mosquito-borne diseases, especially the Zika virus.

Hopefully, having a mosquito emoji option in our toolbox will ultimately save lives that would otherwise be lost due to mosquito-borne diseases. This may seem like a ridiculous idea, but using a mosquito emoji may allow public health professionals to better communicate the modern threat of mosquito-borne diseases to the public. Although the risk of contracting a mosquito-borne disease has been a hot topic in the media for the past few years, some medical professionals have claimed that many Zika-infected patients are surprisingly ignorant of how to protect themselves from mosquito bites. Seeing as how social media has already proven to be an effective platform for communicating certain public health campaigns to the public, it seems unwise to dismiss the claim that a mosquito emoji could save lives in the long run. Only time will tell how well the mosquito emoji works to spread mosquito-borne disease awareness to the public.

Do you think that the mosquito emoji will lead to lower Zika infection rates?

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New Research Shows That West Nile-Induced Memory Deficits Can Be Treated

Right now in the United States there are ten thousand people living with memory deficits as a result of past West Nile infections. Deficits in memory are not the only cognitive deficits that many past victims still experience. Medical experts have long wondered why cognitive functioning remained hindered in past victims of West Nile. As far as experts understood, the victims should have eventually retained normal cognitive functioning after the victims were deemed free of the disease. However, much to everyone’s surprise, this has not been the case. Fortunately, new research in mice is revealing that persistent cognitive issues caused by West Nile infection could result from continued brain inflammation. This is exciting news for doctors and victims as this inflammation can be reduced with modern medical treatments.

Research with West Nile-infected mice has shown that a common drug used to treat arthritis can reduce brain inflammation caused by the disease. This inflammation does not disappear in victims of the West Nile virus. Brain inflammation caused by West Nile can last a lifetime, and may never improve without medical intervention. The lasting cognitive deficits associated with West Nile infection have long puzzled doctors. Now it is clear that persistent inflammation that first occurred with the disease’s onset is responsible for these lasting symptoms. This prolonged inflammation prevents natural repair processes, which in turn, prevent the growth of cells in parts of the brain that have been damaged by the disease and are essential for cognitive function, mostly memory.

These persistent memory problems have made it difficult for past West Nile sufferers to live normal day-to-day lives. Driving a car, cooking, and holding down a job have all been challenging for these victims. According to a professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Robyn Klein, if inflamed areas of the brain are targeted by a basic arthritis drug, memory problems can be treated in past victims, and future victims can be spared these cognitive symptoms. However, brain damage caused by the West Nile virus only gets worse over time, so long time sufferers may not benefit from the new treatment as much as patients who have recently contracted the virus.

Do you personally fear the possibility of contracting the West Nile virus? Do you use products to minimize mosquito bites?

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Zika Prevention Education Has Not Been A Success In Some Regions In America

During the years of 2015 and 2016 Zika was in the news constantly due to numerous outbreaks in the Americas and elsewhere. Given the vast amount of news coverage concerning the Zika virus, you would assume that anybody living in the United States, South America and other nearby islands would be all too familiar with the Zika virus and the negative impacts that face victims who have contracted the disease. This seems like a fair assumption when it comes to women who were pregnant during this two year span given the terrible effects that the Zika virus has on developing fetuses. However, you may be surprised, as public health professionals are learning that in some regions of the US, plenty of individuals, and even pregnant woman are unaware of the negative effects that Zika causes in humans. According to public health officials working in Brownsville, Texas three fourths of all pregnant women who show up to Zika clinics have never even heard of the Zika virus, and obviously they do not know of any Zika prevention measures.

Since the Zika outbreaks occurred a few years ago, American public health officials have required all doctors and hospital personnel to test pregnant woman for Zika every trimester. According to a nurse practitioner working for the Cameron County Health Department, most patients who come into the Mary P. Lucio Health Center, are very poor and often uninsured. Therefore, these particular pregnant women are usually concerned with matters of day to day living. It has also been noted that woman are often more willing to use mosquito repellent than men are willing to use condoms in order to prevent the spread of Zika. Health professionals working at the clinic find this ignorance of the Zika virus troubling. Also, the unwillingness to exercise proper Zika prevention methods is quite problematic in a region like Brownsville where climatic conditions are ideal for mosquitoes. This lack of knowledge concerning Zika and Zika prevention has some public health officials concerned about another Zika outbreak occurring in the southern region of Texas.

Do you believe that another outbreak of Zika could occur solely as a result of ignorance concerning safety measures that can prevent Zika infection?

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Many Olympic Athletes Contracted Diseases In Brazil, But Not Zika

Last year the Zika virus was infecting people in many regions of the world, mostly in Brazil. As you can remember, the 2016 olympic games were held in Rio, Brazil. This raised a dilemma for many olympic athletes who wanted to compete in the games, but did not want to risk Zika infection. Public health officials were warning against traveling to Brazil. Earlier in the 2016 year the World Health Organization had declared a global public health emergency. Despite the heightened risk of Zika infection in Brazil, the olympic games commenced as scheduled with the athletes in attendance. Luckily, the risk of contracting the Zika virus turned out to be lower than experts had estimated. Amazingly, not a single olympian became infected with the Zika virus. However, several olympians still contracted mosquito-borne diseases, such as West Nile, Dengue and Chikungunya.

Dr. Krow Ampofo tested olympic athletes for the Zika virus. He was pleased to find that none of the athletes had contracted Zika, but he was surprised to learn that several had contracted other disease that are spread by the same mosquito that spreads Zika. The WHO also tested olympic athletes and found no cases of Zika infection. However, Dr. Krow Ampofo possessed the largest body of medical test results. He planned on presenting his results at an infectious disease conference in San Diego.

Somewhere in the neighborhood of two thousand athletes, coaches and support staff traveled to Brazil last year to take part in the olympic games. Of those two thousand people, four hundred and fifty seven individuals submitted blood tests. These volunteers also filled out surveys that had asked athletes about the different locations in the country that they had visited. Although none of the volunteers had become infected with Zika, seven percent of the volunteers had contracted other mosquito-borne diseases.  Twenty seven people contracted the West Nile virus, three people contracted Chikungunya, and two people contracted Dengue. The public health emergency that had been declared in Brazil ended in May of 2017.

Do you think that it was irresponsible of the olympic athletes to disregard the WHO’s recommendations by traveling to Brazil?

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