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Water, Mosquitoes and Malaria

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Water and Health

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Abstract

There are >3,000 species of mosquitoes in the world. Mosquitoes need water to complete their aquatic life from egg, larva, pupa to adult emergence of both sexes. Adults are terrestrial and feed on nectar and fruit juices, and females feed on blood of warm-blooded animals. Females bite and transmit the diseases. Male mosquitoes are short lived (about a week or 10 days), mate, and die, while females feed on blood, lay eggs on alternate days, may live for 4–6 weeks, and die. During the process of feeding on man, they transmit dreadful diseases such as malaria, filariasis, dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever (in Africa), and many other viral diseases. There are innumerable mosquitoes’ breeding sites created by the rainfall, irrigation, stagnant water bodies, and man-made water collection in the rural and urban areas. Water bodies produce a variety of mosquitoes including disease vectors and nuisance mosquitoes. Anophelines breed in clean water and some species breed in brackish water, whereas Culex mosquitoes breed in polluted water with organic matter. Rainy seasons are the main transmission season as vector breeding and longevity are favorable for disease transmission. Since the discovery of malaria transmission by mosquitoes, malaria wastelands reclaimed mainly through drainage have produced enormous wealth and prosperity to the malaria-endemic countries in the world. Classical examples include malaria control in Pontine Marshes near Rome, Tennessee Valley Authority in USA, drainage in Assam during the World War II, installation of siphons to wash away mosquito breeding, Banbasa Head works in India, drainage in Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, and many other countries. The paper provides strong link between malaria mosquitoes and water and brings out the importance of drainage in human welfare.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad, India

    V. P. Sharma

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  1. V. P. Sharma
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Correspondence to V. P. Sharma .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Mohali, Punjab, India

    Prati Pal Singh

  2. The National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad, India

    Vinod Sharma

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Sharma, V.P. (2014). Water, Mosquitoes and Malaria. In: Singh, P., Sharma, V. (eds) Water and Health. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1029-0_10

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