George Mason University researchers are on the front lines of Costa Rica’s defense against the Zika virus.
Bordered by Panama and Nicaragua, the Central American country could be a natural laboratory for George Mason researchers, who have partnered with their counterparts at Costa Rican universities and governmental agencies to tackle mosquito-borne viruses afflicting the country.
Mason researchers are working on several Zika research grant proposals and plan to share information and resources with their Costa Rican counterparts. For example, field samples collected in Costa Rica could be sent to Mason for analysis. Costa Rican students could come to Mason, and Mason students may be sent to Costa Rica to do field work.
“I think getting in on the outbreak of Zika virus in the early stage in Costa Rica is advantageous because we can better understand how the epidemic progresses,” said Charles Bailey, executive director of the Mason-based National Center for Biodefense and Infectious Diseases.
Zika has drawn worldwide attention because it can cause serious birth defects, including microcephaly, if a woman contracts the virus while pregnant. In mid May, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that 157 pregnant women in the continental United States have the Zika virus.
Costa Rica’s ambassador to the United States, Román Macaya Hayes, began talking with Mason researchers about possible life sciences collaborations between Mason and Costa Rican scientists in summer 2015, before Zika became a headline. A visit from Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe to Mason brought the university’s research capabilities to the embassy’s attention, said Macaya, who has a PhD in biochemistry.
Now the scientific mission is focused on Zika.
“It seems, unfortunately, Zika has a foothold in Costa Rica,” Macaya said.
And it’s moving quickly. When Mason researchers visited Costa Rica in February, the country only had one documented case of Zika. That number has jumped to more than 40 in May.
Mason-developed nanoparticle technology could be used to create a diagnostic test for Zika using urine or saliva, said Kylene Kehn-Hall, a Mason infectious diseases professor. The technology, created by Mason researchers in the Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine, has been used in a Lyme disease test and is under development for Ebola, tuberculosis and other diseases.
Zika belongs to the same virus family as yellow fever and may follow the same cycle, Bailey said. One cycle happens when mosquitos infect humans; another is the “jungle cycle” when the virus retreats to the jungle and infects monkeys.
As reports of Zika decrease, that doesn’t mean the virus has been defeated.
“There’s always that threat of it jumping out of the jungle and back into humans,” said Bailey, a retired U.S. Army colonel, who spent much of his career researching mosquito-borne diseases in South East Asia and Africa.
Also, Zika is transmitted sexually—a game-changer, Bailey said.
“This is the very first mosquito transmitted virus that has demonstrated sexual transmission,” he said. “That opens up a new case in epidemiology, which makes it much more difficult to control.”
The scientific mission to Costa Rica is more than pure research. “The Costa Ricans are very interested in what we know about viruses, in particular Zika,” Kehn-Hall said. “It’s not just a virus to them. It’s a personal situation.”