Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Usually, mosquitoes, lice, ticks, and other blood-sucking insects spread disease
from person to person, or animal to human by biting a person or animal carrying
the disease-causing organisms. By taking blood containing the disease-producing
organisms, the insect is in a position to transmit the disease organism when
biting another person or animal. The complete elimination of rodents and arthro-
pods associated with disease is a practical impossibility. Humans, arthropods,
and rodents, therefore, offer ready foci for the spread of infection unless con-
trolled.
Lately, insectborne diseases that had been confined to Africa or South America
are showing up in the United States. A good example of this is West Nile Virus.
This virus, a flavivirus, causes encephalitis in susceptible individuals. It was
formerly found in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, but how now
been detected in the United States. It is spread by
Culex
mosquitoes, and usually
is not spread from person to person. However, there are documented cases of
people obtaining the virus from an organ donor.
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The donor was apparently
healthy before a fatal accident and the donor's organs were transplanted into
four individuals who became ill with a febrile illness progressing to encephalitis
7 to 17 days posttransplantation. Their cerebral spinal fluid was tested and found
positive for West Nile Virus. The donor's serum was also tested by a PCR test
and found positive for West Nile Virus.
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This indicates that transmission routes
can change, and unusual transmissions should be considered when investigating
the cause of insectborne diseases.
A list of insectborne diseases together with their important reservoirs is given
in Table 2.4, Table 2.5, and Table 2.6. The list is not complete but includes some
of the common as well as less-known diseases.
Since many diseases are known by more than one name, other nomenclature
is given to avoid confusion. As time goes on and more information is assembled,
there will undoubtedly be greater standardization of terminology. In some cases
there is a distinction implied in the different names that are given to very similar
diseases. The names by which the same or similar diseases are referred to are
presented below.
Bartonellosis includes oroya fever, Carrion's disease, and verruga peruana.
Dengue is also called dandy fever, breakbone fever, bouquet, solar, or sellar
fever. Endemic typhus, fleaborne typhus, and murine typhus are synonymous.
Epidemic typhus is louseborne typhus, also known as classical, European, and
Old-World typhus. Brill's disease is probably epidemic typhus. Plague, black
death, bubonic plague, and fleaborne pneumonic plague are the same. Filariasis
or mumu are infestations of
Wuchereria bancrofti
that may cause obstruction
of lymph channels and cause elephantiasis. Loa loa and loiasis are the same
filarial infection. Cutaneous leishmaniasis, espundia, uta, bubas and forest yaws,
Aleppo/Baghdad/Delhi boil, chiclero ulcer, and oriental sore are synonyms. Vis-
ceral leishmaniasis is also known as kala azar. Malaria, marsh miasma, remittent
fever, intermittent fever, ague, and jungle fever are synonymous. Blackwater
fever is believed to be associated with malaria. Onchocerciasis is also known as
blinding filarial disease. Sandfly fever is the same as phlebotomus fever, three-day
