"DEET vs. Zika - I Would Go with the Former": Davis Symposium

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

DAVIS - Anticipation is growing for the Zika Public Awareness Symposium, set Thursday, May 26 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in Room 1001 of Giedt Hall, UC Davis campus.

The event is free and open to the public but due to limited space, those planning to attend are asked to RSVP to ucdstudentsagainstzikav@gmail.com

Professor Walter Leal of the Molecular and Cellular Biology and 18 of his biochemistry students are organizing it. Leal, a chemical ecologist, collaborates with fellow mosquito researchers in his native Brazil.

"It is very important that students and the public-at-large learn how to prevent a possible Zika epidemic as this is the first virus known to be transmitted both sexually and by mosquitoes," said Leal. "We thought that we did not have the vector (the yellow mosquito), but now our research in collaboration with Brazilian scientists indicates that our local mosquitoes (Culex) are also competent vectors. And more and more we hear cases of travelers returning home infect with Zika virus. I am so glad that a group of 18 students who took my biochemistry class last quarter decided to launch this initiative to educate their peers and citizens of Davis about this dangerous virus."

The scientific-based symposium will include expert panels and speakers throughout the United States and the world, including those working on the front lines of the Zika epidemic.

The agenda:

• The Zika Epidemic – An Overview
• Professor Walter S. Leal
• UC Davis Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology

• Congenital Zika Syndrome
• Dr. Regina Coeli Ramos, University of Pernambuco, Brazil (remote)

• Zika Virus and Me
• Professor Brian Foy
• Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University

• Zika Virus: Looking into Mosquitoes' Vectorial Capacity
• Professor Constância F. J. Ayres
• Department of Entomology, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz-Pernambuco, Brazil (remote)

• Don't Let Mosquitoes Bug You with Zika – Repel Them
• Professor Walter S. Leal
• UC Davis Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology

• DEET vs. Zika – I Would Go with the Former
• Dr. Emanual Maverakis
• Department of Dermatology, UC Davis School of Medicine

• Keeping Mosquito at Bay, Not in Your Backyard
• Dr. Paula Macedo
• Laboratory Director, Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito & Vector Control District

• Friends Don't Let Friends Get Zika
• Dr. Stuart H. Cohen
• Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and director of Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Control, UC Davis Medical School.

-image via Patch archive