Adventure Ausrama Blog

Catching dengue fever is a constant fear in Australia. Like malaria it is spread by mosquitoes. Its full name Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever. You can become very sick indeed if you develop the hemorrhagic form, though it seldom causes death. Drugs made for sepsis infection are being used to treat dengue in mice. They has yet to be used on humans. Hopefully new methods for early detection and treatment with drugs will stop progression to the severe dengue. A new finding could move treatment along a bit. The dengue virus NS1 protein causes immune cells to "leak" blood vessels. TLR4 is the pathway that triggers the response. Some existing drugs do block this pathway. Ironically, many of them did not stop sepsis. They were failures! Other diseases also use the NS1 method of infection. Work has to be done to explore the battery of drugs already available to hopefully find successful treatments for these related illnesses. ◆ Chemistry by Ty Buchanan   ◆ Adv...

With climate change insects move geographically. New regions open up to be populated. Warming of the Australian mainland has taken place. The Asian tiger mosquito has been found on Thursday and Horn islands in the Torres strait close to Australia itself. Dengue and chicungunya are the greatest dangers. These diseases can be fatal. There is no way the mosquitoes can be stopped. They will move into Australia proper. Spraying insecticides will only slow them down. They won't fly to Australia. They will be brought here on small boats moving all over the Torres Strait. The threat is serious. Once established in Australia Asian tiger mosquitoes will be spread by humans as far south as Tasmania. They prefer a cooler climate than the main dengue host, Aedes aegypti. Tigers will carry dengue, however. The outside-life of Australians is under threat. Having a barbecue will be a dangerous pastime. Recently it has been established that mosquitoes are not native to Pa...