Mosquito Hunters (A history of hostilities against man's deadiest foe - the mosquito - since 1881)


Book Description

The book also tells the story of some of the mosquito species that contribute to human diseases such as malaria, filariasis,dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and Japanese encephalitis. These diseases have played an important role in slowing down the national progress through depleted economy, healthand intelligentsia. The country spends almost 50% of its health budget in fighting against these ailments. Therefore, it emerges that, besides the brutal facts of how the mosquito has insinuated itself into human history, from the malaria that devastated invaders of ancient Rome (Alexander ‘The Great’had reportedly died due to Plasmodium falciparum malaria while returning home after the battle with the Indian king Poru in the malaria infested Punjab region),the story of man's struggle to live with the mosquito, from the early 19th Century malaria-defeat inMian Mir under direct charge of DrSamuel Rickard Christophers, who advocated to Dr Ronalad Ross’s theory of ‘environment sanitation’,to the malaria-deaths of hundreds of rural inhabitants living in The Thar Desert’s irrigated Command Area under the world famous Indira Gandhi Nahar Pariyojana, in the early 1990s,and to the recent panic over the chikungunya virus’ in Kerala, as well as many other States and Union Territories, crippling thousands of people, in 2006, and deaths from dengue all over the country during 2012-14, need to be told to the modern generation of medical entomologists and vector-borne disease specialists to relive the moments of victories and defeats in this vicious age-old battle between man andmosquito. At the end we find that we have only ourselves to be blamed to a great extent for accelerating the spread of mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit; with climate change and increased international travel, mosquito-borne illnesses are flaring up all over the globe. Catastrophic failures of mosquito control have ensured that worldwide even now one person dies of malaria every twelve seconds. This book describes, ina mosquito's-eye view, how mosquito breeds, rests, feeds, flies, mate, and dies, besidesinteraction with her natural enemies. The book also deals with the current constraints and future control prospects of mosquito control. In view of the increasing resistance to insecticides and chemotherapy, the book throws light on the subject of greatest promise to ending mosquitoes' deadly assault on man by render them impotent by genetic manipulation by replacing them through paratransgenesis involving micro-organisms such as bacteria and fungi.




Mosquito Hunters


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Mosquitoes


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Genetically Modified and other Innovative Vector Control Technologies


Book Description

This book comprehensively covers the latest development in developing and deploying the genetically modified vectors, particularly Anopheles and Aedes mosquitoes responsible for transmitting malaria parasites and dengue viruses, the most deadly and/or debilitating among all the vector-borne diseases. It is considered timely and commensurate to bring about a book dealing with the various ecological, biological and social as well as regulatory aspects for the deployment of genetically modified vectors in special context with the biosafety of humans, his associates, and the environment. Written by an array of specialists and experts in various subjects of genetically modified organisms, this book centrally addresses the (i) basic principles of the genetic manipulation of vectors and they are potential impact on human and the environment, (ii) ecological, biological, ethical, legal and social implications of the use of genetically modified vectors, (iii) identification of potential hazards; assessment and management of risks for human and environment; risk/benefit analysis, (iv) principles and practices for the assessment and management of biosecurity and biosafety in laboratories (and in the field), (v) guiding principles for creation and management of institutional or national biosafety review boards and ethics review committees, and (vi) development and application of a biosafety regulatory framework and its related legal principles at national levels for securing the development and use of vector control methods based on genetic modification strategies. This publication will be useful to researchers, scientists, and professionals engaged in academic and research institutions, government or non-government, as well as students in universities and medical colleges.




Desert Malaria


Book Description

This book comprehensively reviews the disease dynamics, distribution, surveillance, epidemiology, diagnosis, control strategies, and management of the desert malaria. It highlights the potential risks of unstable but often exacerbated malaria conflagration as epidemics in the middle of duned desert, a desert oasis, and desert-fringe regions. Further, it reveals the factors inveigled into desert environments due to extensive anthropogenic activities such as canalized irrigation projects, high-yielding new agriculture practices, human concentration, and increased trade. It addresses the impact of irrigation on the malarial dynamics and its coupling to the climate forcing. The book also offers a model for desert transformation into malaria heaven under the changed climatic conditions including high rainfall, humidity, and depletion in temperature. Lastly, it offers insight into malaria epidemiology and disease control in the desert’s arid environments. This book is an essential resource for medical entomologists, parasitologists, epidemiologists, and public health researchers.







Viruses, Plagues, and History


Book Description

"Here, my previous edition of Viruses, Plagues, & History is updated to reflect both progress and disappointment since that publication. This edition describes newcomers to the range of human infections, specifically, plagues that play important roles in this 21st century. The first is Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), an infection related to Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). SARS was the first new-found plague of this century. Zika virus, which is similar to yellow fever virus in being transmitted by mosquitos, is another of the recent scourges. Zika appearing for the first time in the Americas is associated with birth defects and a paralytic condition in adults. Lastly, illness due to hepatitis viruses were observed prominently during the second World War initially associated with blood transfusions and vaccine inoculations. Since then, hepatitis virus infections have afflicted millions of individuals, in some leading to an acute fulminating liver disease or more often to a life-long persistent infection. A subset of those infected has developed liver cancer. However, in a triumph of medical treatments for infectious diseases, pharmaceuticals have been developed whose use virtually eliminates such maladies. For example, Hepatitis C virus infection has been eliminated from almost all (>97%) of its victims. This incredible result was the by-product of basic research in virology as well as cell and molecular biology during which intelligent drugs were designed to block events in the hepatitis virus life-cycle"--




Rule of Experts


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Insects and the Life of Man


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When Patrick A. Buxton was appointed by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1926 to head their Department of Medical Entomology, he had formed the opinion that the control of the insect-borne diseases of the tropics was being impeded by lack of knowledge about the physiology of insects. He persuaded the Board of Management to agree to the selection of a lecturer who would endeavour to advance the subject of insect physiology; and at the suggestion of Sir Gowland Hopkins, under whom I had worked at Cambridge, and with the support of Sir Walter Morley Fletcher, Secretary of the Medical Research Council and a member of the Board of Management, I was appointed to this post - with opportunity for extensive travel to study medical entomology in the tropics and with abundant time for research. Some seventeen years later, during the war years, W. W. C. Topley, as Secretary of the Agricultural Research Council, was faced with the urgent need for improved methods of control of insect pests in agriculture and horticulture by insecticidal or other means. As a support for this objective he recommended the establishment of a Unit of Insect Physiology to carry out basic research which would be of potential value to agriculture; and I was invited to act as director. So once again I was able to undertake world-wide travel - to learn the elements of agricultural entomology.







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