Typically referred to as merely a "pest," the mosquito's resume of death includes 725,000 victims a year, so perhaps that term isn't really very accurate and Bill Gates, among others, is fixing to correct that.
As a major carrier of deadly diseases, with malaria being the most noteworthy, the mosquito is perhaps the most dangerous "pest" in the world. With more than 200 million known cases of malaria reported worldwide last year, it is perhaps time to focus a bit more attention on this tiny, flying terror.
Thus, Gates is dubbing this week as Mosquito Week on his blog and spending the entire week educated people on why these deadly insects deserve much more attention than they are currently getting
"Considering their impact, you might expect mosquitoes to get more attention than they do," Gates recently penned on his blog, GatesNotes.com. "Sharks kill fewer than a dozen people every year and in the U.S. they get a week dedicated to them on TV every year."
Gates' blog also includes details on a recent trip he made to Indonesia that examines an ingenious way researchers at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta have developed to combat dengue fever by inoculating mosquitoes instead of people.
"Somehow this story involved me offering up my bare arm to a cage full of hungry mosquitoes so they could feed on my blood," he writes on the blog post. "You can read a harrowing account of what it's like to have malaria and hear from an inspiring Tanzanian scientist who's fighting it."
According to the World Health Organization there were approximately 207 million cases of malaria in 2012 and an estimated 627,000 deaths. The good news is that malaria mortality rates have fallen by 42 percent globally since 2000.
Most deaths occur among children living in Africa where a child dies every minute from malaria. Mortality rates among children in Africa have also been reduced by an estimated 54 percent since 2000.
Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasites. The parasites are spread to people through the bites of infected Anopheles mosquitoes, called "malaria vectors", which bite mainly between dusk and dawn.
