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IMAGE: Graduate student Kaitlin Saunders checks a mosquito trap in Baltimore, Maryland. Collected mosquitoes were tested for pathogens that could spread to people. view more
Credit: Photo by Edwin Remsberg
In Baltimore, Maryland, people living in low-income urban neighborhoods are more at risk of contracting West Nile virus, a mosquito-borne disease, than people living in more affluent neighborhoods. So reports a new study published in the
Journal of Medical Entomology.
Lead author Sarah Rothman, a graduate student in the Department of Environmental Science and Technology at the University of Maryland College Park, says, Our study is the first in Baltimore to document how West Nile virus infection in mosquitoes varies relative to neighborhood socioeconomics. Knowing where mosquito abundances are high, and what diseases they carry, can help focus surveillance and management programs where they re needed most.