Former Graduate Summer Fellow Publishes Editorial on Mosquito-Borne Diseases

Philip Rotz, a PhD candidate in the Boston University History Department and a 2016 Graduate Summer Fellow at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, recently authored an editorial exploring the transmission of viruses — such as chikungunya, dengue, yellow fever, and Zika — transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito in urban coastal areas of South Africa. The editorial was published in The South African Medical Journal.

In the article, Rotz shares insights from his dissertation fieldwork in South Africa, exploring historical outbreaks of mosquito-borne viruses in the region and the potential impacts of climate change on virus transmission in the future.

The editorial was distilled from Rotz’s broader research as a Pardee Center Graduate Summer Fellow in 2016, where he studied the threat of diseases spread by Aedes aegypti in Durban and KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Click here to learn more about the Graduate Summer Fellows Program.