A study out of the University of Florida has put the spotlight back on the Zika virus. In research published in a scientific journal last week, Chelsea Smartt, a molecular biologist at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences in Vero Beach, reported finding Zika RNA in Aedes albopictus mosquitoes in Brazil.
Public health officials suspected that the Aedes albopictus could spread Zika. The research confirms that suspicion.
Aedes aegypti (also known as the yellow fever mosquito) and Aedes albopictus (the Asian tiger mosquito) both abound in Florida, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC doesn’t rule out the threat of Aedes albopictus, but the agency says “because these mosquitoes feed on animals as well as people, they are less likely to spread viruses like Zika, dengue, chikungunya and other viruses.”
Potential Zika Carriers
As for Palm Beach, Deputy Town Manager Jay Boodheshwar said the information about Aedes albopictus is nothing new.
Boodheshwar said the town in its public messaging has referred to both types of mosquitoes as potential Zika carriers, and said that both are active in Palm Beach. But the town has focused on aegypti “because that is the prevalent mosquito that carries the virus here on the island.”
Now that the annual hot and rainy season is returning, the town is preparing for another larvicide treatment of all catch basins on public property, Boodheshwar said.
The catch basins were treated last fall, but the larvicide tablets are only effective for six months, he said.
The public will be notified when the treatment is scheduled, he said.
State and federal officials said in December that Zika no longer was being actively transmitted in Florida. But public health officials say Zika is likely to return with summer rains.
Tim O’Connor, spokesman for the state Department of Health’s Palm Beach County unit, said the latest research won’t affect the health district’s efforts to fight Zika.
“The main prevention is avoiding mosquito bites,” O’Connor said.
Town Councilwoman Margaret Zeidman, who has helped spearhead Zika education and prevention on the island, said aegypti and albopictus are similar. Both are found in tropical and subtropical habitat. But albopictus, unlike aegypti, tolerates cooler climes, up into the Carolinas and New England, she said.
“It’s everyone’s personal responsibility to protect themselves from mosquito bites and to get rid of containers that might fill with water,” Zeidman said.
Containers that hold water should be turned over or treated with a larvicide, she said. Packets are available at Town Hall. To protect from bites, cover your skin with clothing or apply DEET, which is safe for everyone except babies 2 months old or younger.
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