Do you know what the active ingredient is in many insect repellants? If you said, “DEET” you’re correct.

DEET is a chemical ingredient that has been used since the 1940s as the active ingredient in over 500 brands of insect repellants. Although, in recent years consumers have become educated about chemicals used in household and personal products. Many have expressed concerns about applying these chemicals to children’s sensitive skin.

As a result, people are looking for an alternative, especially a plant-based option. One other increasing factor is that DEET is becoming less effective in deterring mosquitoes. These pesky insects are now developing a resistance to the synthetic ingredient.

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Despite the many mosquito-borne outbreaks worldwide, researchers aren’t guessing with these diseases.

Scientists are able to take data and create roadmaps for predicted mosquito-borne diseases. They can find which diseases pose a risk in different regions of the world. The key for this data is local wildlife species and which ones are most likely to host flaviviruses.

What Are These Roadmaps?

The CDC describes flaviviradae as a group of connected, RNA viruses with a single strand. They add that, “members of this family that belong to a single genus, Flavivirus, cause widespread morbidity and mortality throughout the world.” Some of these mosquito-transmitted viruses include yellow fever, dengue fever, West Nile, and the Zika virus.

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Back in the 1800s some of the main epidemics that swept through the United States, as well as the rest of the world, were diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis.

Diphtheria is a highly contagious illness that is caused by bacteria. It attacks the mucous membranes in the nasal passages and produces a thick whitish-grey substance in the back of your throat. A breakthrough for diphtheria came in 1926 in the form of a vaccine.

Tetanus, also known as “lockjaw,” is a bacterial infection that affects the central nervous system. The disease causes your muscles to tense up and become stiff, thus rendering you immobile. Muscle stiffness usually affected the neck and jaw area, leading to the widely-used nickname. In the 1890s, Emil von Behring developed the first antitoxin for tetanus. Von Behring’s medication paved the way for the inoculation discovered about 35 years later.

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The most common mosquito-borne virus in Australia is the Ross River Virus Disease (RRVD). Although there are 4,000 cases of RRVD every single year in Australia, there are no cases in the rest of the world.

This begs the question: how is this virus contained to just Australia?

Ross River Virus Disease is a mosquito-borne virus that is the most common mosquito-borne virus in Australia. According to the CDC, 55-75 percent of people with RRVD don’t experience any symptoms.

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The flu season may have started around October, but we are right in the middle of its peak. That peak normally comes between December and February, with many more cases during those months.

With the season well underway, we are also getting a better idea of this year’s flu impact across the country. Typically reports are published at the end of the flu season, but the CDC is releasing weekly records for the public. Reviewing this information allows readers the chance to witness the impact the flu has on the country as it is happening.

According to current estimates from federal health officials, the virus has already affected millions in the United States. About 6-7 million, in fact.

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