Now that Zika is in the US, mosquitoes are getting all kinds of attention, and the other tropical disease they’re associated with: yellow fever, dengue, and Chik-V.
While there’s some good news, like Florida is planning to release sterile mosquitoes (a technique that’s been effective in other countries), there’s bad news, too. Other states are still focused on spraying. Not only is spraying far less effective on Aedes aegypti (the mosquito that carries Zika and likes to live in houses) it’s causing big problems by killing off all the bees!
Then there’s the Dengue vaccine they’re trying to develop. While it could save a lot of time and trouble if they make something good, there’s been some hiccups. These vaccines are falling into a known complication that all these related diseases face: they interact with the immune system in such a way that getting them more than once, or one than another, leads to a much worse and far more serious bout of illness.
Yellow fever, at least, you get immunity to. But if you get yellow fever then dengue, or dengue then yellow fever, or dengue then dengue again, (and so on…) the symptoms are far more severe. You can see why it’s a huge problem that all these diseases are spreading at once, and so rapidly. If a vaccine could put up a wall between some of those viruses, it would be useful.
So, prevention is still the best strategy—eliminating places mosquitoes can live or breed, wearing bug spray and long sleeves and pants, and finding a suitable mosquito deterrent for indoor use. And immune support might not hurt, either. Colloidal silver is a good choice for daily immune support.
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