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take a required meal so she can lay her eggs.
• When she finds skin, this tiny flying hypodermic syringe injects through her special needle nose some mosquito saliva to dissolve and lubricate so she can suck up the bloody food. As a matter of fairness, I might add here that the male mosquito is not bloodthirsty and is guilty only by association.
• But back to the biting: the trouble with this dangerous female (or femme fatale) all comes from her saliva. It is that salivary juice which causes the very itchy raised allergic welt, which we hate so much. Since she only injects saliva, and not blood from her previous victims, the mosquito does not spread diseases like hepatitis or HIV.
• On the other hand, when the mosquito ingests blood from an infected animal, and that illness is of the type that can infect the mosquito itself, then we have a problem. She can spread from her infected saliva such horrid illnesses as Malaria and Filariasis, which are parasites. The saliva also can carry deadly viral illnesses such as Dengue, Yellow Fever, Equine Encephalitis, and West Nile Virus.
• Many of these mosquito-borne illnesses are in developing countries, and one could think "out of sight, out of mind". But now we realize that we face several possible epidemics in this developed country, which are mosquito-spread conditions.
• So use your mosquito repellant and keep away from that nasty mosquito saliva.
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• Dr. Rick Holm wrote this editorial for "On Call®," a weekly program where medical professionals discuss health concerns for the general public. "On Call®" is produced by the Healing Words Foundation in association with the South Dakota State University Journalism Department. "On Call®" airs Thursdays on South Dakota Public Broadcasting-Television at 7 p.m. Central, 6 p.m. Mountain. Visit us at OnCallTelevision.com.
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