It's an odd issue, but we have encountered many a parent of unwell children without Dengue who have demanded beds for their children AWAY from another child who is suffering from Dengue (Especially from days 3-8 of fever). What would you do in such a situation? How would you counsel them?. Do consider the situation in corporate hospitals where vector population is almost 0, and a public/ village hospital where the vectors populations are much more.
After taking a blood meal from a human host, Aedes mosquitoes will rest for a time to partially digest and concentrate their blood meal before exiting the habitation to complete digestion and produce a batch of eggs. If the mosquitoes have taken a blood meal containing dengue virus(es), there is an extrinsic incubation period (EIP) which is the viral incubation period between the time when a mosquito takes a viremic bloodmeal and the time when that mosquito becomes infectious. This EIP is typically quoted as being 8-12 days but the EIP is affected by temperature and liekly also by species. Therefore, the EIP may be as short as 5 days or be longer than 12 days (see http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0050972). Given these facts, whilst an Aedes mosquito feeding on a child suffering from dengue may go on to infect another human, it would not be possible for this mosquito to directly transmit the dengue virus from this child to an uninfected child in a nearby bed.
Graham Small has given an excellent answer. Presence of vector alone can not be the only deciding factor for the transmission. lalitha kabilan
- Badges
- Science method
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Ecology