India! The country with amazing diversity and wonders has many champions. All these are real facts and real records. Most of them are certified by authentic record books like Guiness Book of Records & Limca Book of Records. I am trying to tabulate as many as I can. Please help me in my efforts by adding more facts and records.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

WORLD'S DEADLIEST KILLER



The world's deadliest human killer is the mosquito. No, mosquito does not kill humans directly, but act as a vector agent that carries disease-causing viruses and parasites from person to person without catching the disease themselves. Female mosquitoes suck blood from people and other animals as part of their eating and breeding habits. When a mosquito bites, she also injects saliva and anti-coagulants into the blood which may also contain disease-causing viruses or other parasites. Tropical countries like india are their favourite hunting grounds.



Mosquitoes are insects which make up the family Culicidae. They have a pair of scaled wings , a pair of halteres, a slender body, and long legs. The females of most mosquito species suck blood (hematophagy) from other animals, which has made them the most deadly disease vectors known to man, killing millions of people over thousands of years and continuing to kill millions per year by the spread of diseases.
Mosquitoes hunt their host by detecting CO2 being breathed out from a distance. When they get closer they can also pick up on the infrared heat being emitted which identifies the host as a warm blooded animal.


Both male and female mosquitoes are nectar feeders, but the female of many species is also capable of haematophagy (drinking blood). Females do not require blood for survival, but they do need supplemental substances (like protein and iron) for the development and laying of their eggs. Prior to and during blood feeding, they inject saliva.
The mosquito genus Anopheles carries the malaria parasite plasmodium. Worldwide, malaria is a leading cause of premature mortality, particularly in children under the age of five, with around 5.3 million deaths annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Some species of mosquito can carry the filariasis worm, a parasite that causes a disfiguring condition (often referred to as elephantiasis) characterized by a great swelling of several parts of the body; worldwide, around 40 million people are living with a filariasis disability. The viral diseases yellow fever and dengue fever are transmitted mostly by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Other viral diseases like epidemic polyarthritis, Rift Valley fever, Ross River Fever, St. Louis encephalitis, West Nile virus (WNV), Japanese encephalitis, La Crosse encephalitis and several other encephalitis type diseases are carried by several different mosquitoes. Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) and Western equine encephalitis (WEE) occurs in the United States where it causes disease in humans, horses, and some bird species.

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