Mosquito-borne disease

Mosquito-borne diseases or mosquito-borne illnesses are diseases caused by bacteria, viruses or parasites transmitted by mosquitoes. Nearly 700 million people get a mosquito-borne illness each year, ^[1]resulting in over tens million deaths.^[2]. The devastation is almost equivalent to the entire 3 year COVID-19 global pandemic.^[3]. At 700 million illnesses, if a family of 4 contracted a mosquito disease, it would mean 2.8 billion affected people, or one-third of humanity.

Diseases transmitted by mosquitoes include malaria, dengue, West Nile virus, chikungunya, yellow fever,^[1] filariasis, tularemia, dirofilariasis, Japanese encephalitis, Saint Louis encephalitis, Western equine encephalitis, Eastern equine encephalitis,^[4] Venezuelan equine encephalitis, Ross River fever, Barmah Forest fever, La Crosse encephalitis, and Zika fever,^[4] as well as newly detected Keystone virus and Rift Valley fever. In January 2024, an Australian research group proved that Mycobacterium ulcerans, the causative pathogen of Buruli ulcer is transmitted by mosquitos. This is the first described mosquito-borne transmission of a bacterial disease.^[5]

There is no evidence as of April 2020 that COVID-19 can be transmitted by mosquitoes, and it is extremely unlikely this could occur.^[6][7]