Summer is here and so does the exposure to these creepy little creatures called mosquitoes! Mosquitoes are known to transmit a number of diseases to humans, other than simply irritating with buzzing sound in the ear and sucking the blood. Some of the diseases spread by them can be cured by using medicine, however some still aren’t fully understood or treatment not available to completely resolve them yet. In this post, we’re going to discuss that can mosquitoes transmit hepatitis or not?
Can mosquitoes transmit hepatitis?
Mosquitoes are a notorious creature, they do transmit a number of diseases to the humans. Theoretically, they can transmit hepatitis too, however practically it’s considered to be impossible. So we can say that it’s possible, but very rare or even impossible to happen!
Mosquito bite is irritating and is feared not only because of the itch and the swelling caused by it, but also because of the fear of spreading blood borne diseases as it makes contact with our blood! However if practically there was a high risk of transmitting hepatitis from one human to another human host via mosquito bites, there would have been a lot larger number of individuals having hepatitis in the world!
Diseases spread by mosquitoes
Common diseases that can be spread by mosquitoes are:
- Malaria
- Dengue hemorrhagic fever
- Rift valley fever
- Encephalitis
- Yellow fever
There are countless cases reported for these diseases being transmitted by the mosquitoes, however not such account is found for hepatitis being transmitted through them.
How can hepatitis spread?
So if mosquitoes don’t spread hepatitis (as far as we can conclude so far), then what are the main ways of the spread of hepatitis? Well here they are:
How is hepatitis B transmitted?
According to the center for disease control (CDC), these people are at risk of transmitting HBV (hepatitis B virus):
- People with multiple sex partners or the ones who have been diagnosed with sexually transmitted disease
- homosexual men
- sex contacts of person infected with heaptitis B virus
- People who use drugs via injection
- Contacts from household of chronically infected person
- Children born to a mother having hepatitis B
- Children of the people who’re immigrants from the areas with high rate of HBV (hepatitis B virus) infection
- Healthcare workers who are exposed to blood
- Patients undergoing hemodialysis
How is hepatitis C transmitted?
According to CDC, the risk of HCV (hepatitis C virus) transmission is greatest among:
- People who use drugs via injection
- Patients receiving clotting factors that were packaged before 1987
- Patients undergoing hemodialysis
- Patients who received blood or organs before 1992
- Patients having undiagnosed liver issues
- Children born to a mother with hepatitis C infection
- Healthcare workers, however low risk
- People having multiple sexual partners, but low risk
- People having single sexual partner who’s infected, however it’s also low risk
So there are more serious issues to worry about before starting to worry about mosquitoes spreading and infecting us with hepatitis virus. However bugs including bed bugs are also considered to be cause of hepatitis, therefore using mosquito repellant or such products can be useful in repelling mosquitoes and bugs of various sorts.