World Mosquito Day August 20, 2009
August 20 is observed annually as World Mosquito Day. It was originated in 1897 by Dr Ronald Ross of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and marks his discovery of the transmission of malaria by mosquitoes. He was later honored with a Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1902.
Malaria – The Facts (source WHO)
- Malaria strikes hundreds of millions of people each year and kills more than 880,000, mostly children under five.
- It is the world’s third-deadliest infectious disease, behind Aids and tuberculosis.
- Global malaria hotspots include South and Central America, rural Southeast Asia and much of Africa, where most deaths from the disease occur.
- Malaria is caused by a parasite called Plasmodium, carried in the saliva of female mosquitoes.
- When an infected insect bites a person, the parasites travel to the liver, multiply and enter the bloodstream.
- The parasites attack red blood cells, causing them to stick to the walls of capillaries, slowing blood flow.
- Without treatment sufferers can die from organ failure.
Disease Eradication in Doubt
Malaria is found most often in warm climates and while common in Africa, Asia, South America and the South Pacific, has been reported in Europe and N. America as well. With climate change and global warming, there’s the danger that malaria may not be eradicated, but in fact, could make a comeback. Notable rises in other mosquito-borne diseases like Dengue fever, Chikungunya fever and West Nile Virus have also been recorded in Italy, Australia and the U.S.
Disease Prevention
The best way to prevent mosquito-borne diseases is by taking personal precautions like wearing insect repellent, and reducing the number of mosquitoes around the home with products like mosquito traps. When set up properly, just one or two traps have the potential to kill thousands of mosquitoes. And at those rates it only takes about two months to collapse a local mosquito population, reducing the risk of West Nile virus or any other mosquito-borne illness.
