Merdeka.com – Professor at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of IPB University, Prof. Dr. drh Upik Kesumawati Hadi, said that people must be aware of mosquitoes, because they are the number one killer in the world.
“Mosquitoes cause more suffering to humans when compared to other organisms and attack not only humans, but also animals,” he said in a written statement received at Jakarta, reported by Antara, Friday (23/10).
Upik said the world health agency or WHO in the 2019 World Malaria Report estimated that there were 228 million cases of malaria occurring in 2018. Slightly different from cases in 2017 with 210 million worldwide.
“The number of malaria deaths was 405,000 in 2018 and 416,000 during 2017. Most of them are children in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia,” he said.
This, he said, was a report of losses due to one disease, namely malaria, not including deaths from other mosquito-borne diseases.
Apart from malaria, according to him, there are various types of arbovirus that are transmitted by mosquitoes, namely the dengue virus, chikungunya, Japanese encephalitis and others which are endemic to Indonesia.
Regarding the transmission of the disease, said dis, it can occur due to many factors, but what is clear is that it occurs when humans have high mobility which allows close contact with mosquitoes. For example, when doing travel, trade and tourism activities, both at home and abroad or from non-endemic areas to endemic areas.
“Mosquitoes are small insects, starting from their bodies, wings, legs and slender mouths and their presence around settlements is a disturbance to comfort,” he said.
Apart from sucking blood and causing itching, he said, mosquitoes can also transmit various diseases, including malaria, dengue hemorrhagic fever, inflammation of the brain, filariasis, dirofilariasis, chikungunya and zika.
Upik explained that mosquito control efforts can be carried out by the community, such as 3M activities, namely draining, closing and burying, plus the movement of one house to clean the sewers from standing water, eliminate mosquito breeding places, using repellants, mosquito nets and mosquito repellents. other.
In general, World Mosquito Day is commemorated every year to be precise on 20 August. It was started in 1897 by Dr Ronald Ross of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.
Dr. Ronald Ross is a British military doctor who conducts research on the transmission of malaria which causes many deaths in humans. While on duty in Secunderabad, India, Ross encountered many malaria patients.
On August 20, 1897, Ross found a plasmodium falciparum oocyst on the stomach wall of the Anopheles mosquito. From this research, Ross declared that only the Anopheles Genus mosquito transmits the malaria parasite. [eko]
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