Our Deadliest Enemy?

Here's something to think about.

The fact that Ebola has made its inevitable way to America is hardly a surprise.  Thankfully, we have the medical infrastructure to deal with such things.  But the presence of such a frightening and terrible disease raises the real possibility of quarantines, travel bans, and additional infection of others with who came into contact with those in the early onset phases of the disease--especially health care workers and families of the sick.

But why the post about mosquitoes?  Recently, two healthy and vital members of our church family were struck down with West Nile virus.  Both were very ill with high fevers, hospitalized for significant periods of time, and now face long and difficult recoveries.  You read about the 100 or so people every year in our neck of the woods who contract this malady, but until now, these have been statics in the news and not people I know.

Both contracted West Nile in the same way--a seemingly innocuous bite from a mosquito.  It is easy to forget that this pest can be a killer.  Like you, I've been bitten hundreds of times with nothing worse than an itchy welt.  But that is not always the case.  The chart above was prepared by Bill Gates in April of 2014 as a warning to take mosquitoes seriously as a public health threat.

West Nile is a serious disease, but not a world health threat.  Malaria is--killing over 725,000 people every year, and sickening up to 200 million of the world's population.  Those numbers are hard to grasp.

Not to get all apocalyptic about it, it is important to realize that Ebola is not the only threat to public heath.  Mosquitoes kill far more humans annually than all other insects and animals combined.  I'm not sure the DDT ban was the best public health decision.

Comments

[Alberto]

Do the people know the source of the mosquitoes?

I was in Texas this past summer and never received so many mosquito bites in my life; they tend to hide in trees or tall grass and vegetation during the day. I couldn't do much because some people were growing corn and refused to apply pesticide in the area, which provided nice shade for mosquitoes during the day. I would hate to live next to organic farms during the summer.

[Kim Riddlebarger]

Alberto:

One of those who came down with West Nile has a city/county flood control channel nearby, full of mosquitoes which tested positive for WN, and which the city has tried to eradicate without success . . .

[RubeRad]

I often wonder (seriously); did mosquitoes exist before the fall? Are their deadly characteristics/behavior part of the curse?

Also, with man's incredibly innovative ability to destroy, could we figure out how to make mosquitoes extinct? Would it be irrecoverably bad for the food chain and ecosystem? I mean, if all the mosquitoes disappeared, wouldn't other insects grow in biomass to fill the ecological space left behind? Things that eat mosquitoes, don't they also eat other insects?

[Kim Riddlebarger]

Rube:

Given the real health danger these critters pose, I'm all for using DDT (especially in the 3rd world) until something better is found. 725K dead annually, ought to be sufficient reason to move efforts to eradicate them to the front-burner post haste.

My fisherman friends (especially trout fishers) would hate to see them go. Surely, some other species would thrive in their absence.

Mosquitoes were around in Eden, they just didn't bite people until after the Fall when Adam lost dominion over the creatures!

[roger o.]

My wife is from Malaysia. over there , Malaria is not the problem. Malaria is there though, It is Dengue fever. Also from a mosquito. and that mosquito is one that bites you during the day. you get the bad type of Dengue fever and one of the things it does is you bleed inside. No medicine for it, yet.