Disease Transmission

A new study determines which household-level characteristics influence the presence of disease-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in Huaquillas, Ecuador.

Researchers who study outbreak transmission dynamics can offer insight to the spread and containment of COVID-19 based on past emerging coronaviruses. UF biology professor Derek Cummings has investigated outbreak dynamics of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which emerged in 2002, and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) which emerged in 2012.

A new study coauthored by EPI researcher Derek Cummings, published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, resolves a long running debate over whether paper medical masks or respirator-style masks are more protective for health care workers against flu.

Mosquitoes are developing high levels of resistance to all major classes of chemical insecticides. UF medical geographers investigate how resistance can fluctuate across seasons and geography, revealing useful data for real-time adaptive strategies to mitigate mosquito-borne diseases in people.

Feed mosquitoes more nitrogen when they’re young, and the adults are less likely to transmit the Zika virus, University of Florida scientists say. Now, researchers want to know why, and they’re determined to discover how the findings can help further their research into the dangerous virus.

EPI members, including director Glenn Morris, identified Madariaga virus for the first time in Haitian children in 2015-2016. Prior to their work, this emerging infectious agent had been found mostly in animals of South and Central America, with the first human outbreak occurring in Panama in 2010.

An easy-to-use saliva test to screen for the parasite that causes malaria has been developed by a team of researchers led by Emerging Pathogens Institute faculty member Rhoel Dinglasan.

The banana crop is an important commodity in Tanzania and much of East Africa, with many in the region eating up to 400 kilograms of bananas per person per year. Plant diseases are a major threat to the sustainability of the crop, and over the past decade, a bacterial infection once found only in Ethiopia has risen in prominence in all countries around Lake Victoria, including Tanzania.

Travel between the continental U.S. and the Caribbean led to locally acquired Zika virus infections in Florida, according to new research published this week.

Lieutenant Governor Carlos Lopez-Cantera visited the Emerging Pathogens Institute Thursday to speak with an interdisciplinary team of experts on the Zika virus and other infectious diseases that threaten the state of Florida.