The Most Common Mosquito-Borne Diseases

West-Nile Virus

The West-Nile Virus is transmitted by mosquitoes of the Culex genus, which is one of the three most common genera in the world. The disease has been reported in western Asia, North America, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. The mosquitos pick up the virus from infected birds and transmit it to horses and humans.

While the virus causes no symptoms in about eighty percent of patients, the other twenty percent develop symptoms of a potentially fatal disease of the nervous system. Individuals with weakened immune systems or those over fifty are the most susceptible to the deadly neurological form. Such unfortunates start developing symptoms within three to fourteen days after being bitten, and those symptoms include high fever, stiffened neck, headache, disorientation, tremors, muscle weakness, convulsions, stupor, coma, and paralysis. There is so far no human vaccine.

Keep reading for the next mosquito-borne illness on this list.