Humans are the not-so-innocent bystanders in the Zika mosquito’s proliferation

          Aedes mosquito at work. webmd.com

Cracking op-ed piece in the LA Times from EMR correspondent Marlene Zuk. Commenting on the spread of infection by the Zika virus, carried by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, Zuk argues that Aedes has evolved and domesticated itself to humans through changes in its coloration, and its ability to take advantage of human habitation. It has greatly extended both its range and its breeding opportunities because we have provided it with water-containing niches among the plastic debris and detritus that attends all human conglomerations. This is why the Zika virus, for which Aedes is the vector, is also extending its geographic range and will soon be accompanied throughout Central America and into the US, by other mosquito-borne viruses like yellow fever, dengue and chikungunya. She quotes professor of public health Peter Osterholm when she says “No matter how prepared we are, though, we can’t stop one thing. As Osterholm put it, “evolutionary biology is the gravity” — the force — that underpins the progress and control of Zika. Evolution got us into this, and evolution will also make it hard for us to get out of it, not least because the mosquitoes are evolving resistance to our insecticides……Aedes aegypti have adapted to live with humans whether we like it or not. They are our unbidden companions. Now we have to adapt to deal with them.”

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