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Tuesday, April 19, 2011

US : Daily temperature fluctuations play major role in transmission of dengue, research finds

Article from Physorg, excerpt, you can find the link to the full study at the bottom of the article in Physorg :

" Daily temperature fluctuations, not just high temperatures, play a significant role in the transmission of dengue, a deadly mosquito-borne disease that strikes millions of people in tropical and subtropical countries, according to ground-breaking research led by French, Thailand and U.S. scientists and conceived by medical entomologist Thomas Scott of the University of California, Davis.

“The size and pattern of fluctuations in daily temperature have a large effect on pathogens transmitted by mosquitoes,” said lead author Louis Lambrechts of the Institut Pasteur, France, who did postdoctoral research in the Scott lab.

The influence of average temperatures on dengue virus transmission has long been known–the higher the temperature, the more efficient the virus transmission—but this is the first study linking temperature fluctuations to the transmission of the disease.

The research findings, published today (April 18, 2011) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, help explain why dengue increases during certain times of the year in “tropical areas where mosquito-borne diseases inflict an enormous burden on human health,” Scott said."

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