Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-03/sfia-sbo031518.php
Public Release: 20-Mar-2018
Sustained bacterial outbreak in mosquitoes limits spread of life-threatening diseases
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Medical practitioners, such as those at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, frequently utilize mathematical models when determining how to best control the spread of mosquito-borne illnesses. Diseases such as chikungunya, dengue fever, malaria, and Zika virus can be life-threatening, and no effective vaccine currently exists. While most mitigation strategies aim to eliminate popular mosquito breeding sites through the use of insecticides, the accompanying costs, logistical difficulties, and resistance evolution make these treatment methods unsustainable.
Wolbachia pipientis is a maternally-transmitted bacteria that occurs naturally in over 60 percent of insect species. Certain strains of Wolbachia inhibit the transmission of disease-inducing pathogens to humans; this feature gives the microbe potential medical value, and scientists have been studying its effect on mosquitoes for years. Unfortunately, it is not naturally found in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the primary transmitters of mosquito-borne illnesses. If researchers wish to use Wolbachia to control the spread of these diseases, they must continually reintroduce it to wild mosquito populations. Such repeated introductioSIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics is strategically unfeasible.
In an article publishing next week in the , Zhuolin Qu, Ling Xue, and James Mac Hyman use an ordinary differential equation (ODE)-based model to calculate the most effective method of introducing a self-sustaining Wolbachia infection to a wild mosquito population. Their two-sex model accounts for the aquatic life stage, heterosexual transmission, and multiple pregnant states for female mosquitoes, thus capturing the entire transmission cycle. "If a stable Wolbachia infection can be established in wild mosquitoes, this will reduce the spread of mosquito-borne diseases," Qu said...
Public Release: 20-Mar-2018
Sustained bacterial outbreak in mosquitoes limits spread of life-threatening diseases
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Medical practitioners, such as those at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, frequently utilize mathematical models when determining how to best control the spread of mosquito-borne illnesses. Diseases such as chikungunya, dengue fever, malaria, and Zika virus can be life-threatening, and no effective vaccine currently exists. While most mitigation strategies aim to eliminate popular mosquito breeding sites through the use of insecticides, the accompanying costs, logistical difficulties, and resistance evolution make these treatment methods unsustainable.
Wolbachia pipientis is a maternally-transmitted bacteria that occurs naturally in over 60 percent of insect species. Certain strains of Wolbachia inhibit the transmission of disease-inducing pathogens to humans; this feature gives the microbe potential medical value, and scientists have been studying its effect on mosquitoes for years. Unfortunately, it is not naturally found in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the primary transmitters of mosquito-borne illnesses. If researchers wish to use Wolbachia to control the spread of these diseases, they must continually reintroduce it to wild mosquito populations. Such repeated introductioSIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics is strategically unfeasible.
In an article publishing next week in the , Zhuolin Qu, Ling Xue, and James Mac Hyman use an ordinary differential equation (ODE)-based model to calculate the most effective method of introducing a self-sustaining Wolbachia infection to a wild mosquito population. Their two-sex model accounts for the aquatic life stage, heterosexual transmission, and multiple pregnant states for female mosquitoes, thus capturing the entire transmission cycle. "If a stable Wolbachia infection can be established in wild mosquitoes, this will reduce the spread of mosquito-borne diseases," Qu said...