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Prevention of Communicable Disease: Mosquito

The malarial mosquito bites and then goes back to some dark corner a Anopheles b Culex (Malarial Mosquito) (Common Mosquito) Courtesy State Board of Health of Georgia. where it remains quiescent for fortyeight hours. Then it again comes out to feed. Contrary to the general opinion mosquitoes bite many times. They frequently remain alive for months. The malarial mosquito, particularly, oftentimes lives in cellars and attics throughout the entire winter. If one of these mosquitoes bites a person with malaria, the parasites are sucked in along with the blood. They pass into the stomach of the gnat and make their way ultimately into the body substance. Here the parasites undergo a series of mul- A single bacterium tiplications. sometimes produces as many as ten thousand young malarial parasites.

After these have developed fully, which requires eight days in warm weather, they make their way into the venom gland of the mosquito.

Here they remain until it bites. They are then injected into the body of the individual attacked along with the poison.

After getting into the human blood, each parasite attacks a red blood cell, bores into it, and grows at the expense of the cell until it reaches maturity. It then divides up into from seven to twenty-five young parasites which are liberated and each in turn attacks a new cell. This process goes on until a sufficient number of parasites are produced in the individual to cause the symptoms of malaria. The new subject of the disease thereafter becomes a source of danger to others in the vicinity through the intervention of still other malarial mosquitoes.

Hence the proper way to avoid malaria is to screen houses so that mosquitoes cannot enter them. Persons in malarial districts should not sit on open porches at night. They should also be very careful to sleep under properly constructed nets. If these measures are taken there is absolutely no danger of any one ever contracting the disease. These precautions are not necessary in the daytime.

Those who have the disease are a constant source of danger to people living in the vicinity. Hence they should be doubly careful to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes at night. They should vigorously treat the disease until the parasites are no longer present in their bodies. They then cease to be a menace to others.

Many children have malaria without showing symptoms. If allowed to sleep without being properly covered with a net, they are very apt to infect a large number of malarial mosquitoes. The blood of children in malarial localities should be examined from time to time. If the parasites be found they should be given the proper remedies until a cure is effected.

Almost all negroes in malarial localities harbor the parasites, though very few of them show symptoms of their presence. It is, therefore, very important that they be treated properly. Their white neighbors should see to it, for their own safety, that negroes do not sleep in houses unprotected by nets.