Posts Tagged: Amy Morrison

Return to Why Have a Backyard Orchard?

Zeroing in on Dengue

Thomas Scott

Deep in the heart of the Amazon forest, the dengue mosquito, Aedes aegpti, is on the prowl.

So are researchers from the Thomas Scott lab at UC Davis.

Scott, a medical entomologist who directs the state-funded UC Mosquito Research Laboratory, and his field director Amy Morrison, based in Iquitos, Peru, know their foe well.

Their goal: to save lives through research, surveillance and implementation of disease prevention strategies.

Morrison talked about the research efforts today on National Public Radio (NPR).

Amy Morrison

NPR reporter Dan Charles traveled to Iquitos to cover the story about the troubling mosquito-borne disease. The first of two parts, "In Heart of Amazon: A Natural Lab to Study Diseases," aired today (June 9). The second part, to air Friday, June 10, will focus on recent cases of dengue fever in Florida.

Morrison told Charles: ""What's fascinating to me about aegypti is it's probably the mosquito that's most closely associated with human beings, and the most adapted to human beings."

The tiger-striped mosquito, is a daybiting mosquito that prefers human blood. Some 2.5 to 3 billion people, primarily in tropical and sub-tropical countries around the world, are at risk for dengue, which Scott describes as "the world's worst insect-transmitted disease." See feature on him on the UC Davis Department of Entomology website, with links to significant research work.

Aedes aegypti is out for blood. And so are the UC Davis-based researchers tracking it.

Aedes aegypti transmits dengue. (Photo courtesy of James Gathany, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

Aedes aegypti transmits dengue. (Photo courtesy of James Gathany, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

Posted on Thursday, June 9, 2011 at 7:07 PM

Comments: 0

Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey

Tags: Aedes aegypti (1), Amy Morrison (1), dengue (1), Thomas Scott (1)