What's the most dangerous animal that has ever lived?

1:03 AM Posted By sdsd

Its Mosquitoes. The female ones specifically. Half the human beings who ever died, perhaps as many as 45 billion people, have been killed by female mosquitoes (the male only bites plants). Mosquito really means 'Small Fly' in Spanish and Portuguese.But you wont realize how dangerous they are until you read this entire article.

Image Credit: Island Crisis

Deadly Killers "The Mosquitoes":

Mosquitoes carry more than a hundred potentially fatal diseases including malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, encephalitis, filariasis and elephantiasis. Even today, they kill one person every twelve seconds. Amazingly, nobody had any idea that mosquitoes were dangerous until the end of the nineteenth century. In 1877, the British doctor Sir Patrick Manson - known as 'Mosquito' Manson - proved that elephantiasis was caused by mosquito bites.

Seventeen years later, in 1894, it occured to him that malaria might also be caused by mosquitoes. He encouraged his pupil Ronald Ross, then a young doctor based in India, to test the hypothesis.

Ross' Interesting Discovery:

Ross was the first person to show how female mosquitoes transmit the plasmodium parasite through their saliva. He tested his theory using birds. Manson went one better. To show that the theory worked for humans, he infected his own son - using mosquitoes carried in diplomatic bag Rome. (Fortunately, after an immediate dose of quinine, the boy recovered).

Ross' Reward:

Ross won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1902. Manson was elected a Fellow of Royal Society, knighted and founded the Londen School of Tropical Medicine.

The Big Family Of Mosquito:

There are 2,500 known species of mosqito, 400 of them are members of the Anopheles family, and, of these, 40 species are able to transmit malaria. The females use the blood they suck to mature their eggs, which are laid on water. The eggs hatch into aquatic larvae or 'wrigglers'. Unlike most insects the pupae known as 'tumblers' are active and swim about. Male mosquitoes hum at a pitch higher than females. Female mosquitoes are attracted to their host by moisture, milk, carbon dioxide, body heat and movement. So sweaty people and pregnant women have a higher chance of being bitten.

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito.

AFRICAN PROVERB

Tags: Animals, Science

Share your views...

0 Respones to "What's the most dangerous animal that has ever lived?"

Interesting Questions And Answers| Ignored Truths