B.B.C. Article

Brazil says the number of babies born with suspected microcephaly or abnormally small heads since October has now reached nearly 4,000.
In the worst affected area, about 1% of newborns have suspected microcephaly.



The Brazilian authorities believe the increase is caused by an outbreak of Zika virus. Just 150 babies were born with microcephaly in 2014.
The brain condition can be deadly or cause intellectual disability and developmental delays.
Colombia's health minister has advised women there to delay pregnancy.

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laklak wrote:Yep, time to exterminate the little fuckers. Around here they're responsible for West Nile and eastern equine encephalitis. Actually, lets just kill ALL the little bloodsucking shitheads.

Eradicating any organism would have serious consequences for ecosystems — wouldn't it? Not when it comes to mosquitoes, finds Janet Fang.

Aca wrote:http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html

Eradicating any organism would have serious consequences for ecosystems — wouldn't it? Not when it comes to mosquitoes, finds Janet Fang.

CONDITIONS IDEAL FOR MOSQUITO BREEDING

Wet, warm weather in many parts of the State and the recent release of water into some previously dry forest areas have created excellent mosquito breeding conditions, Victoria's Chief Health Officer, Dr Robert Hall said today.

http://hnb.dhs.vic.gov.au/web/pubaff/me ... e000148799

It is a very common misconception among the public that streams, ponds and lakes and are mosquito breeding habitats. Mosquitoes cannot breed successfully in flowing water, and streams can only produce mosquitoes when they dry up and leave shallow, stagnant puddles in the stream bed. Although it is true that your average farm pond can produce a few mosquitoes (e.g., 1-2 mosquitoes per 50 ft of shoreline per week), these would all originate from narrow bands of emergent vegetation or stagnant inlets along the shoreline. A pond that has several hundred square feet of shallow marshy habitat on one end will be able to produce more mosquitoes. However, if a pond is deep, contains fish, or has been in existence for long enough to develop resident populations of predatory species (insects, frogs, spiders, etc.), it will not produce enough mosquitoes to be of any consequence. In contrast, a temporary body of water such as a 10 ft. long x 1 ft. wide x 6 in. deep section of flooded ditch or wheel rut can easily produce a thousand mosquitoes in a short period of time.

Mosquito larvae associated with permanent bodies of water generally live where the water is shallow (1 ft or less), and weeds, debris, emergent grasses or some sort of aquatic vegetation shelters the mosquito larvae from fish and other predators. Relatively few mosquito species actually breed in permanent bodies of water such as marshes or swamps. Most of the mosquito species associated with marshes or swamps actually breed in temporary pools along the margins of these habitats.

Any temporary body of water that is present for more than a week can be a mosquito breeding habitat.

http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/lhd/Central ... bitats.htm

Teague wrote:

It's war!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_laser

The mosquito is the most dangerous animal in the world, carrying diseases that kill one million people a year. Now the Zika virus, which is carried by mosquitoes, has been linked with thousands of babies born with brain defects in South America. Should the insects be wiped out?

There are 3,500 known species of mosquito but most of those don't bother humans at all, living off plant and fruit nectar.

It's only the females from just 6% of species that draw blood from humans - to help them develop their eggs. Of these just half carry parasites that cause human diseases. But the impact of these 100 species is devastating.

"Half of the global population is at risk of a mosquito-borne disease," says Frances Hawkes from the Natural Resources Institute at the University of Greenwich. "They have had an untold impact on human misery."


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35408835