A report on Malaria and Mosquito

Malaria parasite connecting to a red blood cell

The life cycle of malaria parasites. Sporozoites are introduced by a mosquito bite. They migrate to the liver, where they multiply into thousands of merozoites. The merozoites infect red blood cells and replicate, infecting more and more red blood cells. Some parasites form gametocytes, which are taken up by a mosquito, continuing the life cycle.

Image of pitcher plant mosquito Wyeomyia smithii, showing segmentation and partial anatomy of circulatory system

Micrograph of a placenta from a stillbirth due to maternal malaria. H&E stain. Red blood cells are anuclear; blue/black staining in bright red structures (red blood cells) indicate foreign nuclei from the parasites.

Electron micrograph of a Plasmodium falciparum-infected red blood cell (center), illustrating adhesion protein "knobs"

An egg raft of a Culex species, partly broken, showing individual egg shapes

The blood film is the gold standard for malaria diagnosis.

Ring-forms and gametocytes of Plasmodium falciparum in human blood

An Anopheles stephensi mosquito shortly after obtaining blood from a human (the droplet of blood is expelled as a surplus). This mosquito is a vector of malaria, and mosquito control is an effective way of reducing its incidence.

Adult yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti, typical of subfamily Culicinae. Note bushy antennae and longer palps of male on left vs. females at right.

Man spraying kerosene oil in standing water, Panama Canal Zone, 1912

Aedes aegypti, a common vector of dengue fever and yellow fever

Walls where indoor residual spraying of DDT has been applied. The mosquitoes remain on the wall until they fall down dead on the floor.

$Here an Anopheles stephensi female is engorged with blood and beginning to pass unwanted liquid fractions of the blood to make room in its gut for more of the solid nutrients.$

An advertisement for quinine as a malaria treatment from 1927.

Female Ochlerotatus notoscriptus feeding on a human arm, Tasmania, Australia

Deaths due to malaria per million persons in 2012

Anopheles albimanus mosquito feeding on a human arm – this mosquito is the sole vector of malaria, and mosquito control is a very effective way of reducing the incidence of malaria.

Past and current malaria prevalence in 2009

Mosquitofish Gambusia affinis, a natural mosquito predator

Ancient malaria oocysts preserved in Dominican amber

A warning sign about mosquitoes in Sodankylä, Finland

British doctor Ronald Ross received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for his work on malaria.

A still from Winsor McCay's pioneering 1912 animated film How a Mosquito Operates

Chinese medical researcher Tu Youyou received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2015 for her work on the antimalarial drug artemisinin.

Anopheles larva from southern Germany, about 8 mm long

Artemisia annua, source of the antimalarial drug artemisinin

U.S. Marines with malaria in a field hospital on Guadalcanal, October 1942

Members of the Malaria Commission of the League of Nations collecting larvae on the Danube delta, 1929

1962 Pakistani postage stamp promoting malaria eradication program

Symptoms usually begin ten to fifteen days after being bitten by an infected mosquito.

- Malaria

In this way, mosquitoes are important vectors of parasitic diseases such as malaria and filariasis, and arboviral diseases such as yellow fever, Chikungunya, West Nile, dengue fever, and Zika.

- Mosquito

14 related topics with Alpha

Anopheles

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Feeding position of an Anopheles larva (A), compared to that of a nonanopheline mosquito (B)

Resting positions of adult Anopheles (A, B), compared to a nonanopheline mosquito (C)

Key to the morphology of female Anopheles

Anopheles is a genus of mosquito first described and named by J. W. Meigen in 1818.

About 460 species are recognised; while over 100 can transmit human malaria, only 30–40 commonly transmit parasites of the genus Plasmodium, which cause malaria in humans in endemic areas.

Insect repellent

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Substance applied to skin, clothing, or other surfaces to discourage insects (and arthropods in general) from landing or climbing on that surface.

Oil Jar in cow horn for mosquito-repelling pitch oil, a by-product of the distillation of wood tar. Carried in a leather strap on a belt. Råneå, Norrbotten, since 1921 in Nordiska museet, Stockholm.

Insect repellents help prevent and control the outbreak of insect-borne (and other arthropod-bourne) diseases such as malaria, Lyme disease, dengue fever, bubonic plague, river blindness, and West Nile fever.

Pest animals commonly serving as vectors for disease include insects such as flea, fly, and mosquito; and ticks (arachnids).

Mosquito net

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An Ethiopian mother with a long lasting insecticide-treated mosquito net.

A mosquito net is a type of meshed curtain that is circumferentially draped over a bed or a sleeping area, to offer the sleeper barrier protection against bites and stings from mosquitos, flies, and other pest insects, and thus against the diseases they may carry.

Examples of such preventable insect-borne diseases include malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, zika virus, Chagas disease and various forms of encephalitis, including the West Nile virus.

A fish parasite, the isopod Cymothoa exigua, replacing the tongue of a Lithognathus

Parasitism

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Close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life.

Head (scolex) of tapeworm Taenia solium, an intestinal parasite, has hooks and suckers to attach to its host

The parasitic castrator Sacculina carcini (highlighted) attached to its crab host

Human head-lice are directly transmitted obligate ectoparasites

Clonorchis sinensis, the Chinese liver fluke, is trophically transmitted

The vector-transmitted protozoan endoparasite Trypanosoma among human red blood cells

Mosquitoes are micropredators, and important vectors of disease

Life cycle of Entamoeba histolytica, an anaerobic parasitic protozoan transmitted by the fecal–oral route

Cuscuta (a dodder), a stem holoparasite, on an acacia tree

The honey fungus, Armillaria mellea, is a parasite of trees, and a saprophyte feeding on the trees it has killed.

Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, is transmitted by Ixodes ticks.

Enterobacteria phage T4 is a bacteriophage virus. It infects its host, Escherichia coli, by injecting its DNA through its tail, which attaches to the bacterium's surface.

Restoration of a Tyrannosaurus with holes possibly caused by a Trichomonas-like parasite

Wolbachia bacteria within an insect cell

Biologists long suspected cospeciation of flamingos and ducks with their parasitic lice, which were similar in the two families. Cospeciation did occur, but it led to flamingos and grebes, with a later host switch of flamingo lice to ducks.

The protozoan Toxoplasma gondii facilitates its transmission by inducing behavioral changes in rats through infection of neurons in their central nervous system.

Trait loss: bedbug Cimex lectularius is flightless, like many insect ectoparasites.

The dry skin of vertebrates such as the short-horned lizard prevents the entry of many parasites.

Leaf spot on oak. The spread of the parasitic fungus is limited by defensive chemicals produced by the tree, resulting in circular patches of damaged tissue.

The rescuing from extinction of the California condor was a successful if very expensive project, but its ectoparasite, the louse Colpocephalum californici, was made extinct.

Parasites are distributed very unevenly among their hosts, most hosts having no parasites, and a few hosts harbouring most of the parasite population. This distribution makes sampling difficult and requires careful use of statistics.

A plate from Francesco Redi's Osservazioni intorno agli animali viventi che si trovano negli animali viventi (Observations on living animals found inside living animals), 1684

Ronald Ross won the 1902 Nobel Prize for showing that the malaria parasite is transmitted by mosquitoes. This 1897 notebook page records his first observations of the parasite in mosquitoes.

"An Old Parasite in a New Form": an 1881 Punch cartoon by Edward Linley Sambourne compares a crinoletta bustle to a parasitic insect's exoskeleton

Fictional parasitism: oil painting Parasites by Katrin Alvarez, 2011

Idiobiont parasitoid wasps immediately paralyse their hosts for their larvae (Pimplinae, pictured) to eat.

Koinobiont parasitoid wasps like this braconid lay their eggs inside their hosts, which continue to grow and moult.

Phorid fly (centre left) is laying eggs in the abdomen of a worker honey-bee, altering its behaviour.

A hyperparasitoid pteromalid wasp on the cocoons of its host, itself a parasitoid braconid wasp

The large blue butterfly is an ant mimic and social parasite.

In brood parasitism, the host raises the young of another species, here a cowbird's egg, that has been laid in its nest.

The great skua is a powerful kleptoparasite, relentlessly pursuing other seabirds until they disgorge their catches of food.

The male anglerfish Ceratias holboelli lives as a tiny sexual parasite permanently attached below the female's body.

Encarsia perplexa (centre), a parasitoid of citrus blackfly (lower left), is also an adelphoparasite, laying eggs in larvae of its own species

Parasites include single-celled protozoans such as the agents of malaria, sleeping sickness, and amoebic dysentery; animals such as hookworms, lice, mosquitoes, and vampire bats; fungi such as honey fungus and the agents of ringworm; and plants such as mistletoe, dodder, and the broomrapes.

Mosquitoes are generally considered annoying and some species transmit diseases, thus leading to a variety of human efforts to eradicate or reduce their presence.

Mosquito control

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Gambusia affinis (Mosquitofish), a natural mosquito predator.

A Hygieostatic Bat Roost, custom-built to house bats for biocontrol of mosquitos

In 1958, the National Malaria Eradication Program implemented the wide-scale use of DDT for mosquito control.

Anti-mosquito fogging operation P.Ramachandrapuram Village in India

Walls on IRS-treated bathroom on the shores of Lake Victoria. The mosquitoes remain on the wall until they fall down dead on the floor.

A light trap that attracts and captures mosquitoes.

Mosquito control manages the population of mosquitoes to reduce their damage to human health, economies, and enjoyment.

Mosquito control is a vital public-health practice throughout the world and especially in the tropics because mosquitoes spread many diseases, such as malaria and the Zika virus.

Plasmodium

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Genus of unicellular eukaryotes that are obligate parasites of vertebrates and insects.

Plasmodium is a eukaryote but with unusual features.

Life cycle of a species that infects humans

Ring forms of Plasmodium inside human red blood cells (Giemsa stain)

Sporozoites, one of several different forms of the parasite, from a mosquito

Oldest mosquito fossil with Plasmodium dominicana, 15-20 million year old

Many birds, from raptors to passerines like the red-whiskered bulbul (Pycnonotus jocosus), can carry malaria.

A clinic for treating human malaria in Tanzania

Over 3000 species of lizard, including the Carolina anole (Anolis carolinensis), carry some 90 kinds of malaria.

The mosquito Anopheles stephensi is among the blood-feeding insects that can be infected by a species of Plasmodium.

The ensuing destruction of host red blood cells can result in malaria.

During this infection, some parasites are picked up by a blood-feeding insect (mosquitoes in majority cases), continuing the life cycle.

Yellow fever

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Viral disease of typically short duration.

Adults of the yellow fever mosquito A. aegypti: The male is on the left, females are on the right. Only the female mosquito bites humans to transmit the disease.

The cover of a certificate that confirms the holder has been vaccinated against yellow fever

Information campaign for prevention of dengue and yellow fever in Paraguay

Areas with risk of yellow fever in Africa (2017)

Areas with risk of yellow fever in South America (2018)

Sugar curing house, 1762: Sugar pots and jars on sugar plantations served as breeding place for larvae of A. aegypti, the vector of yellow fever.

Headstones of people who died in the yellow fever epidemic of 1878 can be found in New Orleans' cemeteries

A page from Commodore James Biddle's list of the 76 dead (74 of yellow fever) aboard the USS Macedonian, dated 3 August 1822

Vaccination against yellow fever 10 days before entering this country/territory is required for travellers coming from...
All countries
Risk countries (including airport transfers)
Risk countries (excluding airport transfers)
No requirement (risk country)
No requirement (non-risk country)

The disease is caused by the yellow fever virus and is spread by the bite of an infected mosquito.

In a differential diagnosis, infections with yellow fever must be distinguished from other feverish illnesses such as malaria.

Insecticide

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Insecticides are substances used to kill insects.

Farmer spraying an insecticide on a cashewnut tree in Tanzania

Biosynthesis of antifeedants by the action of myrosinase.

It has no observable acute toxicity in rats and is approved by World Health Organization (WHO) for use in drinking water cisterns to combat malaria.

Most of its uses are to combat insects where the adult is the pest, including mosquitoes, several fly species, and fleas.

Sterile insect technique

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Method of biological insect control, whereby overwhelming numbers of sterile insects are released into the wild.

The map shows the current (orange) and former (yellow) distribution area and the approximate seasonal spread of the screw-worm fly.

The released insects are preferably male, as this is more cost-effective and the females may in some situations cause damage by laying eggs in the crop, or, in the case of mosquitoes, taking blood from humans.

Anopheles mosquito – malaria vector, example Anopheles arabiensis.

Endemic range of yellow fever in Africa (2005)

Mosquito-borne disease

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Endemic range of yellow fever in South America (2005)

Mosquito-borne diseases or mosquito-borne illnesses are diseases caused by bacteria, viruses or parasites transmitted by mosquitoes.

Diseases transmitted by mosquitoes include malaria, dengue, West Nile virus, chikungunya, yellow fever, filariasis, tularemia, dirofilariasis, Japanese encephalitis, Saint Louis encephalitis, Western equine encephalitis, Eastern equine encephalitis, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, Ross River fever, Barmah Forest fever, La Crosse encephalitis, and Zika fever, as well as newly detected Keystone virus and Rift Valley fever.