Dry Climate Will Keep Zika Mosquito Away Even As Warmer Weather Sweeps In
Other parts of the country are not as lucky: Summer weather in New Orleans and Florida is predicted to create conditions suitable for a large infestation of mosquitoes.
Los Angeles Times:
Even In Peak Mosquito Season, Zika Risk Is Low In California
As summer approaches, some worry that warmer weather could attract mosquitoes and bring the fast-spreading Zika virus stateside. But new research finds that, in the West at least, that probably won't be the case. In a study published Wednesday in the journal Public Library of Science Currents: Outbreaks, researchers from the National Center for Atmospheric Research analyzed travel and weather patterns to estimate the potential size of mosquito populations from month to month in 50 major U.S. cities. They focused on Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which have been carrying the Zika virus across more than 30 countries in the Americas. (Karlamangla, 3/16)
In other public health news —
Los Angeles Times:
Could A Gene-Editing Tweak Make Pigs Organ Donors For Ailing Humans?
Despite their slovenly habits in agricultural settings, pigs raised in biomedical labs are clean enough that many humans would welcome —indeed, do welcome — the use of their tissue for life-saving transplants. Transplanted heart valves routinely come from pigs as well as cows. But the dream of transplanting whole pig organs into humans who need new hearts, livers, kidneys or lungs — xenotransplantation — is not so simple a matter. In addition to the usual challenges posed by the immune system's inclination to reject foreign tissue, the use of pig organs to fill the yawning gap between the supply of human organs and demand for them must contend with the problem of PERVs. (Healy, 3/16)
The San Francisco Chronicle:
Seafood Recommendations Can Pose Mercury Risk To Pregnant Women
Women who follow the federal government’s draft recommendations for the amount of fish they should eat may end up exceeding environmental guidelines for mercury exposure during pregnancy, a new study has found. (Colliver, 3/16)