As the 2017 mosquito season gets underway in many warm areas of the nation, so do renewed concerns about Zika virus and its effect on human health and unborn babies. Zika virus is spread by the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito (Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus). This leads to concerns of neurologic complications, and concerns in women infected with the mosquito-borne virus during pregnancy having babies born with microcephaly, and other severe fetal brain defects.

Dr. Gregory Poland, director of the Mayo Clinic Vaccine Research Group, says there are ways we can protect ourselves, and our family from the mosquitoes that carry Zika. "Probably the most important thing each of us can do is eliminate standing water around our homes and around our properties," says Dr. Poland. "That’s where mosquitoes breed. If we can get rid of the breeding ground for these mosquitoes, we can substantially reduce the number of mosquitoes and, therefore, the chance that one of them would be infected and bite us.

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