- Doctors in the United States have warned people against
swatting mosquitoes against their skin.
-
- Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, they
said it could increase the risk of serious infection.
-
- It follows the case of a 57-year-old woman who died after
developing a fungal infection in her muscles.
-
- Doctors believe she developed the infection after she
swatted a mosquito, causing part of the insect to penetrate and infect
her skin.
-
- Doctors puzzled
-
- The woman developed a fungal infection called Brachiola
algerae.
-
- The infection puzzled doctors, not least because it is
thought to be found only in mosquitoes and other insects.
-
- Unlike malaria or West Nile Virus, it is not found in
mosquito saliva so doctors were able to rule out a bite as the cause of
the infection.
-
- But they concluded that the woman, who died in 2002,
probably developed the infection after smearing the insect into a bite.
-
- The case has prompted doctors at Albert Einstein College
of Medicine in New York to warn against swatting mosquitoes against the
skin.
-
- "I think if a mosquito was in mid-bite, it would
be wiser to flick the mosquito off rather than squashing it," said
Christina Coyle, one of the authors of the article.
-
- However, Roger Nasci, a mosquito expert at the US Centers
for Disease Control in Colorado said there was no scientific basis for
switching to flicking.
-
- He added that flicking a mosquito away is only a temporary
solution.
-
- "Unfortunately, then the mosquito often goes on
to bite another person, or bites you again," he said.
-
- Chris Curtis, professor of medical entomology at the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, was also sceptical.
-
- "If you flick a mosquito away, they will came back.
They are desperate for blood," he told BBC News Online.
-
- "I think it is better to swat the brutes and take
the microscopic chance of developing this infection."
-
- © BBC MMIV http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3906079.stm
-
|
