So why bother to avoid being bitten by insects?

Apart from the sting and your reaction to a bite, mosquitoes carry a wide range of pathogens and their consequent diseases e.g. malaria and dengue. 700 million people a year pick up a disease from a mosquito and they are responsible for the deaths of 1 in every 17 people currently alive (this figure is probably higher now - Taubes G, “A mosquito bites back” NY Times 24-8-1977).

All these are on the increase worldwide due to drug, pesticide and insecticide resistance, climate change, deteriorating health systems, armed conflict and natural disasters. It is not all about mosquitoes either, diseases are caused by many other insects too such as 20,000 different species of wasp. Other dangerous insects include: ticks, tsetse fly, hornets, fleas and non-see-ums that can all cause serious problems for humans.

A knock-on effect of global warming, is that mosquitoes have become more prevalent, they have begun to carry diseases into areas previously thought safe. e.g. West Nile fever and malaria outbreaks in the USA, chikungunya and malaria outbreaks in mainland Europe. According to professor Curtis at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine “it is only a matter of time before malaria is back in the UK.” This is an additional reason why we market ourslves in Europe as well as in the Tropics.

There are no vaccines to prevent dengue and many other insect-borne illnesses.

Mosquitoes attack the animals that are most prevalent in their ecosystem. Therefore, in the Arctic they tend to leave humans alone in favour of Polar Bears. As stated in the film Jurassic Park - mosquitoes have been around for over 100 million years - a lot longer than us! In that time they have mutated into around 3,000 different species. We, homosapiens, are very vulnerable to them. They can speedily build resistance over just a few generations, mutating in order to tolerate a chemical that was once poisonous to them.

This is what happened to our founder Howard Carter: “On my first trip to India back in 1997 I was recommended to take a malaria prophylactic and was prescribed paludrine and avloclor by the competent Trailfinders Travel Clinic in London.

I went to Cochin, Kerela, over New Year - a low risk area at a low risk time of year. I used a repellent that had been recommended to me by a local chemist in the UK - it seemed to attract mosquitoes! I received many bites, mainly around my ankles as it was too hot for socks. Sure enough I contracted malaria while staying in the Periyar National Wildlife Park. This was during a holiday weekend, so no doctor was available. I was delirious with a high temperature of 103 degrees, hot and cold sweats, vomiting and diarrhoea.

After a nightmare journey consisting of a 12-hour high-speed bus ride down the hills followed by a train and finally a flight from Trivandrum back to Mumbai, I received medical treatment. If malaria is treated within two weeks it does not re-occur. I consider myself lucky that I caught it in time.”

As the side effects from some of the anti-malarials are often worse than contracting malaria itself, many travellers choose not to take them and carry a malaria antidote with them instead. Either way it is essential to avoid getting bitten in the first place.

Of the reported 515 million cases of clinical malaria occurring in 2002 at least 300 million were acute cases, which resulted in 1,272,000 deaths!

So if you value your life or at least your holiday, it is imperative to protect yourself against insect bites.

So how do I avoid being bitten?

Diseases & Mosquitos

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