Las Vegas City Wire

A University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) School of Public Health professor said her childhood fascination with science led to her becoming an expert on infectious diseases.

Louisa Messenger is accustomed to traveling the world as a scientist, according to a news release from the university. Mitigating the spread of diseases is a top priority for her.

"I develop and evaluate new tools and strategies to interrupt the transmission of vector-borne diseases," Messenger said in the news release. "These are infectious diseases that are spread by insects. Let's face it – we all hate being bitten by mosquitoes and other bugs, but it's a lot more egregious if that insect then transmits a disease that can potentially kill you."

Messenger is a leader in developing methods "to prevent vector-borne illnesses like malaria, which kills 700,000 people globally each year," the news release noted.

"These vector-borne diseases are a major global health problem," Messenger said. "They account for more than 17% of all infectious diseases worldwide ... As a kid, I think a lot of us went through that phase where we're obsessed with dinosaurs; we're obsessed with bugs; we're obsessed with the natural world. I just never really grew out of it! I always knew that I wanted to be a scientist, and when I was studying for my undergraduate degree, I was fascinated with the interaction between infectious diseases and the natural world."

Messenger added that parasitic diseases and insect vectors have formed a symbiotic relationship over time that is the catalyst for worldwide diseases.

"When I started my career in public health, I was working in Latin America trying to improve the control of a parasite there called American trypanosomiasis, or Chagas disease," Messenger said. "It's a really horrible, neglected tropical disease, which is transmitted by a type of insect called a triatomine bug. They are these really large beetle-like insects, and at night while you're asleep, they come out [of] the holes in house walls and bite you. And while they're biting you and sucking your blood, they defecate on you. There's a parasite in the feces of that bug that enters your body through the bite wound or your eyes, nose, or mouth, which you contaminate while you're sleeping by subconsciously touching your face."