The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently awarded a grant worth $10 million to the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) to establish a new center to help combat the spread of diseases carried by mosquitos and ticks.
“With UTMB’s unparalleled expertise in arthropod-borne diseases, we, along with our partners, are uniquely positioned to improve lives all across the Americas,” Scott Weaver, director of UTMB’s Institute for Human Infections and Immunity, said. “The center will enhance both the regional and national capacity to anticipate, prevent and control emerging and exotic vector-borne diseases.”
The funding provided was part of the the CDC’s Zika Response and Preparedness Appropriations Act of 2016, which has contributed more than $350 million to aid in virus research and prevention. The state of Texas is especially vulnerable to vector-borne diseases, primarily due to its climate and close proximity to Mexico, the Caribbean, and Latin America.
Zika virus, one of the most common vector-borne diseases, is typically spread through the bite of a mosquito, although it can be spread through sexual contact as well. Symptoms of infection are usually mild, however, it has been shown to cause severe malformations of the fetus in pregnant women.
“We will approach this problem from many different angles,” Weaver said. “Including safe and reliable control of mosquitoes while safeguarding against insecticide resistance, new point-of-care methods for faster and more reliable disease diagnosis, improved predictions of disease emergence and spread, better understanding of how to serve communities affected by insect-borne diseases, and training a new generation of public health professionals highly skilled in vector-borne disease research and management.”
Partners involved in the new center include The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, The University of Texas at Austin, The University of Texas at El Paso, Texas A&M AgriLife, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, Vanderbilt University, the University of Colorado, the University of Houston and the Texas Department of State Health Services.