Alcohol Abuse Advice

Diseases Spread By Mosquitoes And Their Symptoms

Mosquitoes are common flying insects that are closely related to the flies; that is they belong to the family Culicidae. They are mostly known for transmitting malaria but they also transmit a variety of other diseases too.

Malaria
This is a vector borne disease that is infectious, it is caused by the parasites, and the parasites are the protozoan and are of the species of plasmodium. There are four species of the plasmodium that are responsible for the malaria in human, Plasmodium vivax, plasmodium malariae, plasmodium ovale and there is the plasmodium falciparum which causes cerebral malaria.

Symptoms- chills, sweating and high fever, fatigue, muscle and joint pains, headache, vomiting and back ache. In the case of cerebral malaria, death is likely to occur within 24 hours.

Dengue Fever/Breakbone/Dandy Fever
This is a disease that is caused by viruses that are transmitted. This disease usually attacks people that have low levels of immunity, since this disease is caused by one of the for serotype virus, it is possible that one can contract the disease multiple times. However after a dengue fever (pronounced deng-gay) attack it has been known that if you are infected with the virus, your system can develop an immunity that lasts a lifetime.

Symptoms- Head aches, fever, rash, bleeding gums or nose, black stools, joint and muscle pains. In severe cases that result from dengue hemorrhagic fever, there is evidence of hemorrhage in the body.

West Nile Fever.

This is an infection of the brain caused by a virus known as the West Nile Virus and was first detected in Uganda in 1937. This disease is also known as West Nile Encephalitis. Encephalitis means inflammation of the brain.
Another cause of this fever is bacterial infections. This virus is closely related to the Japanese encephalitis virus or the Saint Louis encephalitis. This virus is mainly transmitted to human by mosquitoes that have been infected as they bite other infected people or animals.

Symptoms- fever, head aches, skin rash. In severe cases very high fever, stiffness of the neck, sleepiness, paralysis, coma, convulsions and rarely death (3%-15%).

Yellow Fever

It also is referred to as American plague, black vomit or yellow jack. This disease is an acute viral infection. The reason why it was branded yellow fever is because of the jaundice in its symptoms, simply that means that a person affected turn yellowish. This disease is a source of several epidemics in the past. In 1700, France, England and Spain had over 300,000 people killed. Over half the Army died during the Haitian Revolution as a result of this disease.

Symptoms- arrhythmias (heart dysfunction), bleeding which may result in hemorrhage, headache, jaundice, muscles ache, red eyes face or tongue, vomiting or even vomiting blood, seizures, decreased urination. A person that has advanced yellow fever will show signs of shock, renal failure and even liver failure.

The above mentioned diseases cannot be transmitted if the person was bitten by a mosquito that was not itself infected. The only mode of preventing mosquito bites is getting rid of source that they are breeding at, for instance stagnant water and even long grass.