€¦ · Zika virus 6 Photos » Traditional options for fighting Zika include developing vaccines...
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Transcript of €¦ · Zika virus 6 Photos » Traditional options for fighting Zika include developing vaccines...
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REGION: UCR scientists take aim at ZikavirusThe insect specialists are creating new ways to stop mosquitoes and the spread of viruses. RELATED:INTERACTIVE GRAPHIC: Learn more about the Zika virus
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ABOUT ZIKA
What: The virus, which may belinked to birth defects, is usuallytransmitted through mosquitoes.Symptoms can include fever, rash,joint pain or red eyes.
Where: Zika outbreaks areoccurring in 26 countries andterritories in the Americas, threePacific islands and a country offAfrica.
California: Six travelers, includingone in L.A. County, have returnedwith Zika since 2013. No InlandZika cases have been reported.
By SUZANNE HURT / STAFF WRITERPublished: Feb. 3, 2016 Updated: Feb. 4, 2016 12:29 p.m.
The UC Riverside labs of Anandasankar Ray and OmarAkbari may seem far removed from the Brazilian citieswhere health officials fear the mosquito-borne Zikavirus may be to blame for thousands of recent birthdefects.
But in the wake of the World Health Organization onMonday declaring Zika outbreaks in Latin America to bea global public health emergency, those entomologylabs could play integral roles in thwarting the dreadedtropical virus.
Ray and Akbari are leading research at the university’sworld-renowned entomology department to help slowthe spread of Zika.
“Zika has become a major issue,” Akbari said. “We thinkwe can potentially combat it in this alternative way.”
The virus is suspected of causing 3,670 cases ofabnormally small heads, or microcephaly, in Brazil.
Story continues below. Mobile users, click here foran interactive graphic.
KURT MILLER, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
More from this storySLIDE SHOW:REGION: UCR scientists take aim atZika virus6 Photos »
Traditional options for fighting Zika include developing vaccines or drugs to treat thesymptoms, eliminating the mosquito or using repellents to stop the mosquitoes frombiting.
A molecular biologist, Akbari has begun a novel genetic-based approach, developinggene technologies to build Zika-resistant lab mosquitoes that can be released into thewild and mate with others to pass on resistance to the virus.
Ray, director of the Center for Disease Vector Research, is building affordable, naturalrepellents based on smells mosquitoes don’t like. They may help stop Zika and otherviruses. He’s also part of a cross-disciplinary project that would use drones to set andretrieve smarter, cheaper mosquito traps that could prevent disease epidemics.
STRONGER MOSQUITOES
Inside Akbari’s lab in UCR’s Boyce Hall, an insectary is kept at a warm 80 degrees.
On Tuesday, Feb. 2, Aedes aegypti mosquitoes – the primary mosquito species to carryZika – perched or floated slowly inside 35 mesh and plastic cages. Cups with small
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amounts of water held squirming larvae or moist paper towels bearing tiny blackmosquito eggs.
Akbari wants to use his molecular biology skills to tackle the Zika problem from adifferent angle. He’s working on genetically altering mosquitoes to make themresistant to the Zika arbovirus and finding a way to spread those genes throughmosquito populations.
Akbari is seeking newly announced National Institutes of Health funding for his two-part project to battle Zika.
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