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Scientists Find Vaccines To Fight Zika, Dengue, and Chikungunya

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Scientists are ready to introduce the vaccines that might help prevent notorius diseases caused by mosquitoes such as dengue, Zika, and even Chikungunya, to the public. 

Scientists are working on ways to remove disease carrier mosquitoes, and they also aim to control the growing population for preventing the spread of disease. As of now, doctors give a pain relief and support for each infection.

Aside from mosquito control, vaccines are another hope of the patient to survive the disease. One of the vaccines that had been approved was dengue vaccine, which was approved in December for use in the Philippines, Mexico, and Brazil.

Vaccine will be used as defense against disease, however, it has shortcomings but its versions have potentials to be improved. A dengue vaccine researcher at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Anna Durbin, is optimistic about the development of vaccine because she has been working for it for 16 years.

One of the major health problems that the world is facing is the yellow fever with a scientific name Aedes aegypti. This type of mosquito has an ability to spread deadly diseases such as dengue, Zika, and even chikungunya as it can breed in any water.

The unique feature of Aedes aegypti is it is a serial biter as it can infect the entire family in minutes, unlike to some mosquitoes that can satisfy easily and fly away, Itchiness is not the main problem of a patient who was bitten by this yellow fever mosquito, but its saliva that has been transferred through biting because it could be loaded with thousands of virus particles, Science News reported.

Yellow fever began spreading in Dec. 2013 in the Carribean and almost 1 million people were reported infected in America in Jan. 2015. In 1990s, yellow fever became the most feared disease.

Chikungunya virus, which also carried by Aedes aegypti mosquito, was discovered in 1950s on the Makonde Plateau in Africa. The symptoms of this disease include joint pain that can accompany infection. The virus has spread quickly, for reasons still unknown, South and Central America in December 2013.

Meanwhile, there were more than Zika cases reported in the United States of America in the past years. Just like in dengue case, vaccine is an answer for Zika for defense, PBS reported.

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