‘Shazam For Mosquitoes’: Phone App Tells Zika-Carrier Apart From West-Nile Carrier
The technology uses wing beats to identify mosquito varieties. In other Zika news, Florida confirms 11 new cases.
The New York Times:
Telling Mosquitoes Apart With A Cellphone
Simple cellphones can tell one type of mosquito from another by their hums, which may be useful in fighting mosquito-borne diseases, according to new research from Stanford University. Calling their project “Shazam for Mosquitoes,” after the phone app that identifies music, students from the university’s Bio-X institute showed that common cellphones could record mosquito wing beats accurately enough to distinguish, for example, Culex mosquitoes, which spread West Nile virus, from Aedes mosquitoes, which spread Zika. (McNeil, 11/21)
Health News Florida:
Florida Confirms 11 More Zika Cases
Florida health officials on Friday identified 11 new cases of the mosquito-borne Zika virus, bringing the state total to 1,188 cases. Six of the new cases involved people who were infected while traveling outside of Florida. Two of those cases were found in Miami-Dade County and two were in Volusia County, while Escambia and St. Lucie counties each had one of the cases. (11/21)