Daniel Parker, PhD, assistant professor of population health & disease prevention and Guiyan Yan, PhD, professor of population health & disease prevention are experts in infectious diseases - especially mosquito borne. Both experts can provide comment on the risk of growing mosquito habitats.
In the past couple months, California experienced unforseen torrent rain and our urban setting is now the perfect breeding ground for mosquitos and therefore mosquito borne diseases.
These mosquitoes thrive in urban settings and use small pools of water (such as in Bromeliads, containers, old tires, etc.) for laying eggs and larval stages. These mosquitoes also spread a wide variety of diseases, such as dengue fever, Zika, and chikungunya. While these diseases are not currently endemic to our setting, travelers to and from places where they are endemic can bring the viruses back with them. As weather patterns continue to change, and as these invasive mosquitoes continue to expand their habitat in California, vigilance will remain important.
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