Zika Found In Common House Mosquitoes In Brazil

Researchers in Brazil announced Thursday the "presence of the Zika virus" in Culex mosquitoes (the common house mosquito) in the eastern city of Recife. These findings were released with a word of caution, saying "the obtained data will require additional studies in order to assess the potential participation of Culex in the spread of Zika and its role in the epidemic."

Researchers collected 500 mosquitoes and found the virus in three pools of mosquitoes. Each pool contains between one and ten mosquitoes. The presence of the virus in these mosquitoes does not mean they can transmit the virus.

Before this study was completed by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Zika was thought to solely by carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Culex mosquitoes are "twenty times greater than the population of Aedes Aegypti" in the Recife metropolitan area, according to the study.