Certain viruses change the bacterial growth on the skin and thus the smell of a person. That attracts mosquitoes.
Ad
the essentials in brief
- Certain viruses change bacterial growth on the skin.
- The smell of a person can thus be changed by certain viruses.
- This attracts mosquitoes and transmits diseases.
When a person becomes infected with Zika or dengue virus, their smell changes.
By being infected with such viruses bacterial colonization on the skin. The diseases are transmitted further because mosquitoes are attracted to them. Researchers from Tsinghua University reported on this in the specialist journal Cell.
The specific skin bacterium cannot multiply unchecked on healthy skin. But if you get infected with Zika or Dengue, yes.
Co-author Penghua Wang from the University of Connecticut explained in a broadcast: “The flaviviruses can manipulate the skin’s microbiome in such a way that it attracts more mosquitoes and the pathogen spreads more quickly.”