Mozzies: a global disease risk for travellers
Travel medicine specialists like to tell their patients that the most dangerous animal they're likely to encounter in their travels is not a ferocious lion, a rabid dog, or a rampaging elephant.
Without a doubt, one of the most deadly creatures on earth is one of the smallest; the mosquito.
There is also no doubt that for Australian travellers, the risk of being bitten by a disease-carrying mosquito is increasing on virtually every continent.
Mosquitoes are more pervasive that ever in the tropics, and outbreaks of the diseases they spread have become more common - especially dengue fever.
Even more worrying, a mosquito species capable of transmitting dengue and other diseases is now established in a dozen European countries and North America - temperate and cold climate areas where no one ever expected they would become a potential danger to locals and visitors alike.
The rise and rise of dengue fever
Before 1970, only 9 countries had experienced severe dengue epidemics. Today, more than 40% of the world's population is at risk of dengue fever - 100 countries, and rising, according to the WHO.
"Not only is the number of cases increasing as the disease spreads to new areas, but explosive outbreaks are occuring," a WHO spokesman said in a statement last week.
Dengue is present in virtually every tropical country including Australia's tropical north, and in temperate regions too.
What more mozzies means for travellers
According to the WHO, Southest Asia and the Western Pacific are the two regions worst affected by dengue - home to the most popular holiday destinations with Australians.
For the traveller, it means: Mosquitoes are no longer just a nuisance. In many travel destinations they carry deadly or debilitating diseases like malaria, dengue, Chikungunya and West Nile virus (in Australia, different species carry Murray Valley encephalitis, Ross River and other diseases).
Dengue and Chikungunya fever are spread by (at least) two species of Aedes mosquitoes that thrive in urban and semi-urban areas.
For the traveller, it means: If you are visiting or living in an endemic country, there will almost certainly be a risk - wherever you stay. In face, an upmarket resort or hotel with leafy grounds, a pool, and/or outdoor dining-bar area presents as much of a rish as a suburban house with gardens.
Aedes mozzies feeds in the daytime, mainly (but not exclusively) in the morning before dusk in the evening. The virus-carrying female typically can bit multiple people during each feeding period.
For the traveller, it means: if you are in a cool, shady area you are likely to get your share of attention from mozzies. If dengue is present in the mosquito population, it is simple mathematics: the more bites you get, the higher your risk of infection.
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