According to tradition, the mayor of a Mexican village married a crocodile dressed as a bride

Both viruses are transmitted to humans by mosquitoes. So is a person with dengue or Zika also very attractive to the insects they can smell? If the answer is yes, then this means that these viruses perform a transmissible function from one organism to another.

“If an infected person attracts mosquitoes because of the odor the virus causes, I think infection only increases the chance that the mosquito will locate them,” says Penghua Wang, an immunologist at University of Connecticut Health.

Wang and his team conducted a series of experiments. They puffed air over two groups of mice—one infected with dengue or Zika, and the other healthy. Mosquitoes are attracted to the scent emitted by infected mice. The immunologist concludes that “these two viruses can change a person’s body odor so that it is more attractive to mosquitoes.”

“It alters the skin microbiome so that the bacteria produce an intoxicating scent for mosquitoes.” Noushin Emami, an infectious disease biologist at University of Greenwich in London, who was not involved in the research, points out that mice and humans are different creatures. “There are many aspects of our bodies that are different from that of mice,” he says, adding that the study’s applicability to humans needs to be confirmed.

But it’s worth noting, she says, that the researchers in this study observed that mosquitoes are similarly attracted to the scent of people with dengue fever, and this is a promising basis for their future research.