Dengue is the fastest growing virus in the world – a mosquito-borne illness that strikes an estimated 390-million people a year, including residents of Puerto Rico and Hawaii. Half the world’s population is at risk, and while many have no symptoms, others suffer a high fever and some die.
“It is a flu-like illness. It has pains in the muscles, joint pain, it gives you sometimes a rash, and some of the bone and muscle pain used to be called breakbone fever,” says Dr. Mariano Garcia-Blanco, chair of the Dept. of Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology at UVA. His research team has studied how the mosquito infects people and compromises their immune system.
“It essentially spits the virus into our skin. What it deposits in the skin is more than just the virus itself. This is the most potent effector that the virus has to dampen our immune reaction to the virus, so the virus – by doing this – is giving itself an advantage.”
Understanding that could help scientists to find ways of preventing the spread of dengue – a priority in light of the fact that one kind of mosquito that carries the virus is on the move.
“It came into the Port of Houston back in the 60’s, and it’s spread now as far north as Minnesota, but it’s not a robust population, so I think that the real danger in the U.S. right now – mainland U.S. – is the Gulf Coast and Florida," Garcia-Blanco says. "That’s going to change with climate change. Buenos Aires almost never had dengue. They’re having an outbreak right now.”
He notes that a related virus changed the course of American history.
“The founding member of this family of viruses -- yellow fever virus – played a huge part in American history. It moved the constitutional convention from Philadelphia to New York, because Philadelphia has an outbreak. The fact that there was an outbreak of yellow fever in Philadelphia tells you there could be an outbreak of dengue, because it’s the same exact mosquito. The other thing that people don’t remember is that a third of the population of Memphis died from yellow fever in a huge outbreak, and that changed the history of the South. It made Atlanta the big southern city at the time.”
And he hopes his latest discovery might also shape history – saving millions of lives.
“I don’t think this is something that tomorrow we’re going to be able to use, but the more we understand about how the virus gets transmitted, the easier it will be to develop anti-transmission tools.”
Garcia-Blanco’s findings may also be useful in preventing related viruses – Yellow Fever, West Nile and Zika.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
