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Beats & Bites: Mosquito Awareness Event & Music Festival Draws Huge Crowd

The Compton Creek Mosquito Abatement District (Compton Creek MAD) officially kicked off the beginning of Mosquito Awareness Week with a community music festival and mosquito awareness event, held at Davis Middle School on April 20th.

People may soon have a new weapon in the battle against mosquitoes, and it comes from an unusual source: bacteria.

LOS ANGELES - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District awarded a $529,100 contract to BjD Services of Canyon Country, California, March 13, for sediment and vegetation removal in Compton Creek to restore natural water flow capacity downstream.

Since 2015, California has seen many travel-related Zika virus cases, and as the population of mosquitos that spread the virus continue to expand across the state, there is a significant risk for new Zika cases, according to results published in Emerging Infectious Diseases.

An appetite-suppressing drug makes them act as if they’ve already feasted on blood. The experiment really shouldn’t have worked. Several years ago, Laura Duvall from Rockefeller University decided to feed mosquitoes with experimental drugs designed to suppress the appetite of humans.

The current measles outbreak in Washington state has tallied the highest number of infections since 1996, an official said Wednesday. The 37 cases there include 36 in Clark County, across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon, and one case in King County, which includes Seattle; one case in Oregon is linked to the outbreak, Washington Secretary of Health John Wiesman said.

Influenza (flu) is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses. It can cause mild to severe illness. Serious outcomes of flu infection can result in hospitalization or death. Some people, such as older people, young children, and people with certain health conditions, are at high risk of serious flu complications. The best way to prevent the flu is by getting vaccinated each year.

Zika virus is transmitted to people primarily through the bite of infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes (yellow fever mosquitoes) or Aedes albopictus mosquitoes (Asian tiger mosquitoes). These mosquitoes are not native to California. However, since 2011 they have been detected in several California counties.

The Zika virus must take the “side roads” into the placenta to infect a fetus, one researcher said — but the Rift Valley fever virus takes the “expressway.”
A blood sample taken by a veterinary worker from a sheep in Naivasha, Kenya. Rift Valley fever can pass from livestock to humans.

A fierce winter storm that forecasters predict will be similar in size to the early December system that triggered debris flows in recent burn areas is bringing rain and snow to California this weekend.