Posts Tagged: Thomas Scott

War on Dengue Fever

UC Davis medical entomologist Thomas Scott is mentioned in "The War on Dengue Fever," a news article published Nov. 3, 2008 in the New York Times.

Scott is a leading expert on dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease transmitted by Aeges egypti.

Reporter Thomas Fuller began his story:

BANGKOK — There was little that doctors could do for a 3-year-old boy brought to Bangkok’s main children’s hospital two weeks ago with dengue fever. Like thousands before him, he had reached the most dangerous phase of the disease, dengue shock syndrome, and he died of internal bleeding and organ failure three days after being admitted.

The U.S. Army maintains a medical research laboratory in Bangkok, where military scientists study tropical diseases. One of their goals: to develop a vaccine for dengue.

Here's where Scott comes in:

"The mosquito can breed in something as small as a soda bottle, but its ideal breeding conditions are large containers common in many parts of Southeast Asia to store drinking water," Fuller wrote. "(Unlike other mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti prefers clean water, according to Thomas W. Scott, a professor at the University of California, Davis, who is a leading expert on the species.)"

We wrote about researcher Scott's work in July: On the Trail of Dengue: A Disease with No Vaccine, No Cure.

Scott's goal is to save lives through research, surveillance and implementation of disease prevention strategies. He maintains field stations in Peru, Mexico and Thailand.

He's studying  "the patterns of human infection with dengue virus, doing detailed studies of mosquito populations and disease in humans in order to predict which prevention strategies work the best."

Basically, Scott assesses risks, develops computer models and implements disease prevention strategies.

Briefly:

The culprit: Aedes egypti, or the yellow-fever mosquito, that transmits dengue virus to people.

The disease: Dengue, caused by any one of four serotypes or closely related viruses known as DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3, or DEN-4. Nicknamed “break bone fever,” classic dengue is characterized by high fever, headaches, muscle and joint pain, nausea, vomiting and a rash.

The prevalence: Some 50 to 100 million annual cases of debilitating dengue fever. The most severe form of the disease, dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF), strikes half a million a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). An estimated 5 percent with DHF die.

The CDC says dengue outbreaks occur in most tropical urban areas of the world where the Aedes egypti lives. 

In the United States, dengue is rare. Occasionally travelers to infected areas  return with the disease.

Now the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangkok, is attempting to develop a vaccine for dengue. As New York Times reporter Thomas Fuller wrote, quoting Col. James Boles, the laboratory commander: "There's no dengue in Kansas. No malaria, either. That's why we are here."

And that's why medical entomologists like Thomas Scott are here, too.

 

Medical entomologist Thomas Scott

MEDICAL ENTOMOLOGIST--Thomas Scott, professor of entomology at UC Davis, is one of the leading authorities on dengue. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

In the lab

IN THE LAB--Battling mosquito-borne diseases, Thomas Scott, medical entomologist and professor of entomology at UC Davis, maintains a mosquito research lab in Briggs Hall on the UC Davis campus and field stations in Mexico, Thailand and Peru. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

What's Medical Entomology?

What's medical entomolology?

Anyone who's an entomologist or who works in entomology is asked that question periodically. Medical, they know. Entomology? Often not. But medical entomology?

Well, it's the study of relationships among arthorpods, microbial pathogens and human health, according to medical entomologist Thomas Scott, professor of entomology at UC Davis.

Scott teaches courses on medical entomology. His next one: the 2009 winter quarter,  Jan. 5 through March 16.

Worldwide, Scott says, arthropod-borne diseases have devastating effects on human health; they are a leading cause of human morbidity and mortality.

In his course, he explains the basic biology of medically important arthropods and the pathogens they transmit. The diseases include malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, West Nile virus, Lyme disease and River Blindness.

Scott, a noted mosquito-borne disease expert and newly elected fellow of the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science  (for "distinguished contributions to the biology and ecology of mosquitoes and his leadership in developing strategic concepts for preventing dengue fever and other mosquito-borne diseases”) does research from his mosquito research laboratory at UC Davis and at field stations in Peru, Thailand and Mexico.

In January, Scott hosted the 42nd annual U.S.-Japan Parasitic Disease Conference on the UC Davis campus. Some 100 scientists from throughout the world participated in the three-day conference "to develop a cross-cutting perspective on what the priorities should be for the future research on arthropod vectors of disease," he explained.

With new and emerging diseases, increasing national and international travel, settlement in endemic areas, and the proliferation of commerce, we can expect disease from vector-borne pathogens to increase, Scott says.

It's obvious what we need less of (diseases) and what we need more of (medical entomologists).

Thomas Scott in Kenya

IN KENYA--UC Davis medical entomologist Thomas Scott, towers above schoolchildren in Kenya in a photo taken in 2004. (He's 6-foot, 6-inches tall.)

Mosquito that tranmits dengue

THE CULPRIT--This is the mosquito, Aedes egypti, that transmits dengue. UC Davis entomologist Thomas Scott is a leading authority on the mosquito and the disease. See http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/news/tomscottdengue.html. (Photo by James Gathany, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

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