Mosquito-borne disease

Prevalence of malaria in 2009.
World map showing the countries where the Aedes mosquito is found (the southern US, eastern Brazil and most of sub-Saharan Africa), as well as those where Aedes and dengue have been reported (most of Central and tropical South America, South Asia and Southeast Asia and many parts of tropical Africa).
  A. aegypti only and   dengue distribution in 2006.
Endemic range of yellow fever in Africa (2005)
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. Nearly 700 million people contract mosquito-borne illnesses each year, resulting in more than a million deaths.[1]

Diseases transmitted by mosquitoes include malaria, dengue, West Nile virus, chikungunya, yellow fever,[2] filariasis, tularemia, dirofilariasis, Japanese encephalitis, Saint Louis encephalitis, Western equine encephalitis, Eastern equine encephalitis,[3] Venezuelan equine encephalitis, Ross River fever, Barmah Forest fever, La Crosse encephalitis, and Zika fever,[3] as well as newly detected Keystone virus and Rift Valley fever. In January 2024, an Australian research group proved that Mycobacterium ulcerans, the causative pathogen of Buruli ulcer is transmitted by mosquitoes. This is the first described mosquito-borne transmission of a bacterial disease.[4]

There is no evidence as of April 2020 that COVID-19 can be transmitted by mosquitoes, and it is extremely unlikely this could occur.[5][6]

  1. ^ "Explainer: How climate change is amplifying mosquito-borne diseases". World Mosquito Program. Retrieved 2024-06-20.
  2. ^ "Mosquito as Deadly Menace". pfizer.com. Pfizer.
  3. ^ a b "Diseases that can be Transmitted by Mosquitoes". health.state.mn.us. Minnesota Dept. of Health. Archived from the original on 2018-02-15. Retrieved 2018-02-15.
  4. ^ Buultjens, Andrew H.; Tay, Ee Laine; Yuen, Aidan; Friedman, N. Deborah; Stinear, Timothy P.; Johnson, Paul D.R. (2023-08-08). "Season of transmission of Ross River/Barmah Forest Virus and Mycobacterium ulceransclosely align in southeastern Australia, supporting mosquitoes as the vector of Buruli ulcer". bioRxiv 10.1101/2023.08.07.552371.
  5. ^ "Myth busters". WHO.int. World Health Organization. Retrieved 2020-04-18.
  6. ^ "It's extremely unlikely mosquitoes can transmit COVID-19, Purdue professor says". purdue.edu (Press release). Purdue University. Retrieved 2020-05-12.