Scientists have found that the Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, which most commonly infect humans with the zika virus, can also infect their eggs with the virus. This occurrence is not incredibly common, as it happens about once every 290 times, meaning this fact shouldn't affect the prevention and end of the spread of zika too much. The eggs laid by these mosquitoes also thrive in nearly any situation, so trying to kill the eggs will prove to be a challenge. This new discovery proves that getting rid of zika will be harder than originally thought.
Just as they were in colonial times, mosquito-born illnesses are relevant now. In colonial times, especially in the early days of the Chesapeake colonies, malaria was the cause of many deaths, and later yellow fever. Similarly, we are currently fighting the zika epidemic and commonly have outbreaks of the west nile virus. Mosquitoes never fail to cause us problems, even centuries later.
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