Georgia Augustine

Helios Scholar

Vector-borne diseases are the cause for roughly 20% of all human deaths around the world. Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are an urban mosquito species that is thriving in Maricopa County, Arizona, and is the primary vector for a variety of viruses that are pathogenic to humans such as Dengue virus and Chikungunya virus. In collaboration with Maricopa County Vector Control, we tested Aedes aegypti mosquito pools using two assays designed to target conserved nonstructural protein regions across alpha and flaviviruses. This approach was used in surveying Aedes aegypti in 2018 where we identified a novel insect-specific flavivirus (ISF) within the mosquito population. This current project aimed to understand (1) if the same novel ISF would be detected in the county in later years and (2) if any alphaviruses were present in the same population at the same time. Out of 386 mosquito pools from 2019-2021, approximately 22% were positive for a flavivirus or alphavirus.