WIKIMEDIA, LUIS GERARDO SANDOVAL ORTIZAedes aegypti, the mosquito that spreads Zika virus, can likely transmit multiple viruses at once, according to a recent study from Colorado State University (CSU). The research, published May 19 in Nature Communications, found that insects exposed to Zika, dengue, and chikungunya viruses wound up with all three pathogens in their saliva, which means that they could transmit them all in one bite.
Whether coinfection by multiple viruses poses a greater threat to humans than infection by Zika alone is unclear, researchers say.
As ABC News reported, when the researchers exposed 48 mosquitoes to all three viruses, 92 percent of the mosquitos tested positive for them all somewhere in the body, and six of the 48 mosquitoes (12.5 percent) had all three viruses in their saliva.
“Based on what I know as a virologist, epidemiologist, and entomologist, I thought that the viruses would either compete or enhance each other in some way,” said Greg Ebel, director of CSU’s Arthropod-borne and Infectious Diseases Laboratory and co-author of the study, in a press release. “We didn’t see much evidence of either one of these things.”
Study author Claudia Rückert said ...
