SOME MOSQUITO FACTS!
Female Ae. aegypti. Lateral view- The word "mosquito" originated from the Spanish words "muscato", "muskitto" or "musqueto" to mean "small fly"
- Their importance is not known except that they BITE!
- Patrick Mason first discovered that mosquitoes – the Culex quinquefasciatus – can transmit filariasis, a parasitic disease, in 1878
- Ronald Ross discovered the malaria parasite in Anopheline mosquitoes in 1897
- Colonel Walter Wright discovered that Ae. aegypti (Aedes aegypti) can transmit yellow fever in 1900
- The male mosquito is smaller than the female mosquito
Aedes aegypti (Male on the left, Female on the right) Source: Wikipedia- Only female mosquitoes BITE!
- Male mosquitoes do not bite or spread disease as they do not have the mouthparts to bite
- Diseases transmitted by mosquitoes in Malaysia : There are 5 human diseases transmitted by mosquitoes in Malaysia: Malaria, Dengue, Filariasis, Japanese Encephalitis and Chikungunya.
Source : Seameo-Tropmed- The mosquito life cycle:
Source : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
2. THE DENGUE SCOURGE
The
incidence of dengue in Malaysia has been rising steadily, from 7,103
cases in 2000 to 46,171; including 134 deaths, in 2010 and the disease
costs the Malaysian economy between RM270 million and RM667 million per
annum. In light of this, the Malaysian government has identified dengue
control as a national priority.
Dengue has also put some 2.5 billion people in more than 100 countries at risk.
At present, there is no effective vaccine or specific treatment
for dengue fever while current control methods (eg. larviciding, space
spraying with insecticides or fogging, public education or ComBI,
legally enforced breeding site reduction, etc.) have not stopped the
spread of the disease. So there is an urgent need to evaluate promising
new technologies.
Source : National Enviroment Agency
2.1. Dengue
Dengue is transmitted by the bite of a female Aedes aegypti
mosquito infected with any one of four versions of the dengue virus and
the major source, or reservoir, of the virus is humans. The disease is
transmitted when a female Aedes aegypti mosquito bites an infected person and then bites someone else. Symptoms appear within 3 – 14 days (average 4 – 7 days).
Classical
dengue fever is a severe, flu-like illness that affects infants, young
children and adults. Dengue hemorrhagic fever is a potentially lethal
complication, particularly in children, and early clinical diagnosis and
careful clinical management by experienced physicians and nurses is
necessary to reduce the number of fatalities.
More
than 70% of the global disease burden is in South-East Asia, Asia and
the Western Pacific areas. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the
incidence and severity of the disease are increasing rapidly while the
USA, Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean are much less affected.
International air travel is facilitating the rapid global movement of
dengue viruses as it increases the risk of dengue hemorrhagic fever
epidemics by introducing new dengue viruses into susceptible
populations.
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