While Brazil Was Eradicating Zika Mosquitoes, America Made Them Into Weapons

The exact moment when one of the world’s most dangerous mosquitoes arrived in the Americas is unknown. It's clear that they came from Africa, and they may have crossed the Atlantic as early as 1495, on some of the first European ships to reach Hispanola. By 1648, when yellow fever broke out on the Yucatan peninsula, Aedes aegypti had definitely arrived. Their behavior upon arrival, though, was unusual. Most of the world's 3,500-plus mosquito species are innocent of lust for human blood but on these long journeys across the sea, the mosquitoes that survived were the ones willing to bite humans.

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