Scientists from the University of Queensland found the virus 'good' in mosquitoes that could potentially help efforts eradication diseases caused by mosquitoes such as dengue fever. The virus, known as Parramatta River virus is found in a joint study by scientists from the University of Queensland (UQ) and Sydney University.
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| Bites of the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes can cause the dengue fever. (Picture from: http://bit.ly/1PRGsIj) |
Dr. Jody Hobson-Peters, of the Center for Infectious Disease Research UQ said the Parramatta River virus can only infect mosquitoes and can not infect humans or animals.
"We believe if the mosquito is infected with this virus, then the mosquitoes will be difficult infected with a disease caused by a virus," he said.
This means we may be able to stop the transmission of viral diseases that come from mosquitoes by using these findings. Moreover, the Parramatta River virus belonging to the same family of viruses that cause dengue fever.
Therefore, according to Dr. Hobson-Peters, the virus can be passed from generation to generation in mosquitoes. "This will be a very effective way to overcome the dengue fever virus," said Peters.
He added, "This is an unusual type of virus. We can deliberately infect Parramatta River virus in mosquitoes from infecting diseases such as dengue fever in humans."
Until now, scientists have only found the virus Parramatta River at Aedes vigilax species, which is known to redeem Ross River virus. However, scientists are still searching for the possibility of another virus found in Aedes egypti mosquitoes responsible transmit the dengue fever.
"We are still researching the many viruses that we have found and build a new system to find all kinds of new viruses," said Peters.
According to Peters, if we can prove that this virus and other viruses that we find it really can prevent mosquitoes infected with dengue fever virus, then maybe in the future we can stop this disease as well.
Peters said the researchers also learned a lot about the types of microbes found in the body of the mosquito. Now that he is reviewing new surface course and learn about how the behavior of these mosquitoes.
There are many interactions between microbes and research of this kind has never been done before. "This is a challenging research!" said Peters. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC INDONESIA]
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