Think of the deadliest animals and you'd probably think of the snakes, whales or cats of the jungle, but measuring on the scale of human deaths caused by animals, it is a tiny species that barely qualifies into the 'animal' category. The most human killers are mosquitoes! It might seem bizarre but it is true. These annoying flies carry and transmit so many diseases that they kill 725,000 people each year!
Malaria, a commonly caused disease because of Anopheles mosquitoes, alone caused 438,000 deaths in 2015, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO). These flies may look tiny but the amount if viruses they carry are deadly. Dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever, and Zika virus, all three have high mortality rates, are viruses spread by mosquitoes. These small flies are spread on every continent except Antartica, so the deaths around the world remain more. Dengue fever is spread across 128 countries in the world, and approximately 3.9 billion are at a risk daily! 88 Malaria, Nearly 50 Dengue Cases Reported in Delhi This Season. Comparing these figures with other death causes of humans, including murders, the deaths by mosquitoes remain at the top.
Check out the causes of people being killed in the year 2015:
People killed in 2015 by:
Mosquitoes: 830,000
Humans: 580,000
Snakes: 60,000
Sandflies: 24.200
Dogs: 17,400
Kissing Bugs: 8,000
Scorpions: 3,500
Tsetse flies: 3,500
Tapeworms: 1,600
Crocodiles: 1,000
Lions: 100
Bees: 60
Tigers: 50
Jellyfish: 40
Wolves: 10
Sharks: 6
(Gatesnotes)
— The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) August 6, 2018
Scientists are working on methods to eliminate these virus-carrying mosquitoes and some experiments are being carried out. It is not one mosquito that we talk of, there are more than 2,500 species in mosquitoes too. They also have the ability to adapt to any environment, which makes the diseases also endemic. An entomologist Krijn Paaijmans was quoted about the behaviour of these flies. He said, "Mosquitoes are a difficult creature to deal with. They are constantly avoiding anything we try to do against them." So while we thought it would be dog or snake bites causing the most deaths, the mosquitoes remain the most deadly ones.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 06, 2018 03:45 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).