Medical Entomology.ppt

Medical Entomology Insects of Medical Importance Directly cause damage to human tissue Act as Vectors for disease-causing organisms ------------------------------------------------------------ Provide useful medical services/drugs Are useful model systems in genetic studies Stinging Insects Belong to the order Hymenoptera Includes Paper wasps, Yellow Jackets, Honey bees and Fire Ants Have specialized venom glands attached to “sting” Envenomation Symptoms Envenomation Symptoms Allergic reactions Happen on the second (or later) sting Antibodies to venom over-react and produce chemicals (like histamines) that can damage neighboring cells. Severe allergies can lead to anaphylactic shock, a potentially deadly swelling of the airways and other tissues. If you’ve been allergic once, you’ve got a 60% chance of being even more allergic next time. Carry an EpiPen! Africanized Honey Bee and Feral Bees Red ImportedFire Ant Biting Insects Saliva from several biting insects acts as an allergen in many people This can lead to intense itching when bites are numerous: Insects As Vectors Several Biting Flies and Reduviid Bugs carry infective stages of disease causing pathogens. They are responsible for spreading diseases like: Malaria (Mosquitoes in genus Anopholes) Plague (Rodent Fleas) West Nile Virus (Mosquitoes) Typhoid/Cholera/Dysentary (Muscid Flies) Malaria Caused by 4 species of protists in the genus Plasmodium Anopholes sp. Mosquitoes transmit the infective stage of Plasmodium to people. Active Plasmodium destroy large quantities of red blood cells There are 300-500 million infections/yr world-wide, with 1 million deaths/yr. Malaria has been virtually eradicated in the United States (US citizens with malaria have contracted it in other parts of the world) Life cycle of Plasmodium Trypanasomiasis (Sleeping Sickness) Caused by two subspecies of protists in the genus Trypanosoma Carried from host to host blood-sucking tsetse flies Trypanosome infection is characterized by