It's the perfect setting for his scientist's latest project, but Jack Hayes, Ph. D., would prefer that such a setting not exist. The water filling the old flowerpots, candle-holders and grave markers is churning with a life of it's own. Its a bustling city of sorts for mosquitoes, and Hayes is on a quest to determine if the pesky creatures are harboring a disease that could make its way from Mexico into Texas. Working in conjunction with the Texas Department of Health, Hayes and a group of students have gathered some 15,000 mosquitoes and mosquito larvae in the last couple of months in several towns in Mexico and Texas. As the carrier for a dengue virus, container-breeding mosquitoes have the potential for spreading Dengue fever virus, of which there are four serotypes.
Symptoms range from headaches and flu like symptoms to fatal hemorrhagic symptoms.
Over the years, Dengue fever has gained a nickname of breakbone fever because it can become so disabling. Symptoms usually last 10 days. Hayes is concerned about the emergence of Dengue 3, which has appeared in Tampico, Mexico. Being exposed to Dengue 3 after having Dengue 2 could bring on dengue with hemorrhagic symptoms, a form of the disease that causes severe internal bleeding. In the colonias, the scarcity of air conditioners and windows with screens makes people easy prey for the mosquitoes.