Monday, October 17, 2016

Whenever I meet foreigners, whenever they talk to me about my country, one of the biggest misconceptions that tends to come up all the time is about our poisonous and venomous wildlife, how dangerous it must be to live here in Austrailia every day. Well, I'd like to address that a little bit. Because yes, we do have some of the most poisonous and venomous snakes and spiders in the world. We do have crocodiles in Queensland, and we've got to them terrible-looking box jellyfish that are incredibly painful. But we live amongst these wildlife and they live amongst us, and most people will never be harmed.

After a mosquito bites a person, it leaves an inflamed area on the skin that can become irritating and itchy. The irritation is caused by the saliva of the mosquito injects into the wound when it bites. Scientists in the United Kingdom have found that this inflammation can also worsen mosquito-borne viral infections such as Zika or dengue. A new study by researchers at the University of Leeds suggests that bite inflammation not only helps viruses quickly establish themselves in the body, but can also help spread the infection throughout the body, increasing the chances of developing a severe illness.