Are itchier insect bites more likely to make us sick?
New research suggests the worse our reactions to mosquito bites are, the more likely it is we'll get sick,听says Dr Cameron Webb.
聽we could better understand mosquito-borne disease by looking closely at our itchy bites.
Mosquitoes need blood. Unfortunately, they often get that blood from us; some of us are bitten聽. But mosquitoes aren鈥檛 flying syringes transporting droplets of infected blood from person to person. The mosquitoes need to be infected with a pathogen first before it can be passed on. And, more importantly, the mozzie鈥檚 spit must be infected.
Bites and bumps
When a mosquito bites, she (only female mozzies bite) injects saliva to get the blood flowing. It鈥檚聽聽that helps the mosquito suck up blood from their unsuspecting victim.
Bites are usually worse on kids.聽,听
罢丑别听聽can vary greatly. For many, a 鈥渕ozzie bite鈥� will be a mild annoyance that resolves itself without too much trouble. For others, the reaction can be聽.
It is particularly troublesome for young children who seem to react the worst. While there are聽聽to solve the itch, reactions generally get less severe as we聽聽to bites.
The spit may cause a reaction but it can also contain something more serious. Mosquito-borne pathogens, such as聽,听听补苍诲听, infect hundreds of millions of people every year. The emergence of聽聽and its聽聽is yet another reminder of how potent these pathogens can be.
Spit the secret to infection
Not everyone bitten by a mosquito carrying a virus will develop symptoms.聽聽suggests the worse our reactions to mosquito bites, the more likely it is we鈥檒l get sick.
The scientists allowed the yellow fever mosquito,听Aedes aegypti, to bite laboratory mice and then injected the mice with聽聽(an African mosquito-borne virus that generally causes mild symptoms in humans) via syringe.
Other mice were only injected with the virus. What they found was that the immune cells that rushed to the bite site as part of an inflammatory response helped the virus replicate and spread. Mice without mosquito bites had substantially lower rates of infection.
The implication is the reaction of the host to a mosquito bite may play a critical role in the virus' ability to infect the host. This isn鈥檛 surprising, and聽聽has suggested an important role for mosquito saliva in virus transmission. These mosquito-borne viruses have evolved to exploit mosquitoes to get from host to host, why not adapt to the immune response of their hosts to further aid their survival?
Reducing bite reactions and infection risks
The latest research hints at a fascinating potential for mosquito-borne disease prevention.
There鈥檚 a pretty easy way to stop mozzies from biting you.聽,听
We already have a wide range of聽聽mosquito repellents that can help prevent bites. We just need to聽. If you can stop mosquitoes biting, you can stop disease.
Perhaps the use of anti-inflammatory creams or other medications may further reduce the chances of illness. It鈥檚 difficult to stop all bites and only takes one infected mosquito to slip through the cracks in our repellent coverage to cause infection.
Could using these creams act as a safety net? If you can鈥檛 stop all the bites, at least minimising the inflammation may assist in reduce risk of disease!
This article was first published in