List of diseases spread by arthropods

Last updated December 12, 2023

Arthropods are common vectors of disease. A vector is an organism which spreads disease-causing parasites or pathogens from one host to another. Invertebrates spread bacterial, viral and protozoan pathogens by two main mechanisms. Either via their bite, as in the case of malaria spread by mosquitoes, or via their faeces, as in the case of Chagas' Disease spread by Triatoma bugs or epidemic typhus spread by human body lice.

Many invertebrates are responsible for transmitting diseases. Mosquitoes are perhaps the best known invertebrate vector and transmit a wide range of tropical diseases including malaria, dengue fever and yellow fever. Another large group of vectors are flies. Sandfly species transmit the disease leishmaniasis, by acting as vectors for protozoan Leishmania species, and tsetse flies transmit protozoan trypansomes (Trypanosoma brucei gambiense and Trypansoma brucei rhodesiense) which cause African Trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness). Ticks and lice form another large group of invertebrate vectors. The bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes Lyme Disease, is transmitted by ticks and members of the bacterial genus Rickettsia are transmitted by lice. For example, the human body louse transmits the bacterium Rickettsia prowazekii which causes epidemic typhus.

Although invertebrate-transmitted diseases pose a particular threat on the continents of Africa, Asia and South America, there is one way of controlling invertebrate-borne diseases, which is by controlling the invertebrate vector. For example, one way of controlling malaria is to control the mosquito vector through the use of mosquito nets, which prevent mosquitoes from coming into contact with humans.

Diseases

Disease	Vector	Causative organism	Host	Symptoms	Area	Treatment
African horse sickness	Culicoid midge	Orbivirus (virus)	Equids	Fever, lung, heart or mucous membrane symptoms.	Europe, Africa	Vaccination
Babesiosis	Tick	Babesia (protozoan)	Humans, rodents, dogs, cattle	Fever, hemolytic anemia, chills, sweating, thrombocytopenia	South Europe, Central United States	Antibiotics
Bluetongue disease	Culicoid midge	Orbivirus (virus)	Cattle, sheep	Fever, salivation, swelling of face and tongue	Europe, Africa	Vaccination
Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis)	Various assassin bugs of subfamily Triatominae	Trypanosoma cruzi (protozoan)		Mild symptoms, then chronic heart or brain inflammation	Central and South America	Antiparasitic drugs; treatment of symptoms
Chikungunya	Mosquito	Chikungunya virus	Human	Abdomen pain, eye pain, joint pain, muscle pain, fever, chills, fatigue, headache, skin rash	Asia	Antibiotics
Dengue fever	Mosquito	Flavivirus (virus)		Fever then arthritis	(Sub) tropics and South Europe	Observation/supportive treatment
Dirofilariasis	Mosquito	Dirofilaria	Dogs, wolves, coyotes, foxes, jackals, cats, seals, sea lions, muskrats, bears, rabbits, raccoons, reptiles, beavers, ferrets, monkeys,	Chest pain, fever, pleural effusion, cough, nodules under the skin or lung granulomas	Worldwide	Heartworm medicine
Tick-borne encephalitis	Tick	Tick-borne encephalitis virus		Ill with flu then meningitis	Central and North Europe	prevention and vaccination
Heartland virus disease	Tick	Heartland virus		Fever, lethargy, headache, myalgia, diarrhea, nausea, loss of appetite, anorexia, thrombocytopenia, leukopenia, arthralgia	Missouri and Tennessee, USA	Supportive treatment
Leishmaniasis	Sandfly	Leishmania (protozoan)		Fever, damage to the spleen and liver, and anaemia	South hemisphere and Mediterranean Countries	Treatment of infected
Lyme disease	Tick	Borrelia burgdorferi (bacterium)	Deer, human	Bull's-eye pattern skin rash around bite, fever, chills, fatigue, body aches, headache, joint pain. Sometimes neurological problems.^[1]	Europe, North Africa, and North America	Prevention and antibiotics
Malaria	Mosquito	Plasmodium (protist)	Human	Headache then heavy fever	(Sub) tropics	Prevention and anti-malaria
Plague	Flea		Rats, Human	Fever, weakness and headache. In the bubonic form there is also swelling of lymph nodes, while in the septicemic form tissues may turn black and die, and in the pneumonic form shortness of breath, cough and chest pain may occur	Central Asia, India, US, Africa, Peru, Brazil	Antibiotics
Pogosta disease Synonyms: Karelian fever Ockelbo disease Sindbis fever	Mosquito	Sindbis virus		Skin rash, fever, in severe cases - arthritis	Scandinavia, France, Russia	unknown
Rickettsial diseases: Typhus rickettsialpox Boutonneuse fever African tick bite fever Rocky Mountain spotted fever etc.	Tick, mite, lice	Rickettsia species (bacteria)		Fever with bleeding around the bite	Global	Prevention and antibiotics
Tularemia	Deer flies, ticks	Francisella tularensis (bacterium)	Birds, lagomorphs, rodents	Skin ulcer, swollen and painful lymph glands, fever, chills headache, exhaustion	North America	Streptomycin, gentamicin, doxycycline, ciprofloxacin
African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness)	Tsetse fly	Trypanosoma brucei (protozoan)	Wild mammals, cattle, human	Fever, joint pain, swollen lymph nodes, sleep disturbances	Sub-Saharan Africa	Various drugs
Lymphatic filariasis	Mosquito	Wuchereria bancrofti	Human	Fever, swelling of limbs, breasts, or genitalia	Africa, Asia.	Various drugs
West Nile fever	Mosquito	West Nile virus	Birds, human	Fever, headaches, skin rash, body aches.	Africa, Asia, North America, South and East Europe	None
Yellow fever	Mosquito	Yellow fever virus	Human	Muscle pain, abdomen pain, loss of appetite, fatigue, jaundice, fever, chills, headache, nausea, vomiting, bleeding, delirium	South America, Africa	Yellow fever vaccine
Zika fever	Mosquito	Zika virus	Monkeys, human	Fever, eye pain, conjunctivitis, rash, headache, vomiting, joint pain, muscle pain, fatigue, chills, sweating, loss of appetite	South America, Mexico, Asia, Africa	Decreasing mosquito bites, condoms

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A human pathogen is a pathogen that causes disease in humans.

Epidemic typhus, also known as louse-borne typhus, is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters where civil life is disrupted. Epidemic typhus is spread to people through contact with infected body lice, in contrast to endemic typhus which is usually transmitted by fleas.

Rickettsia is a genus of nonmotile, gram-negative, nonspore-forming, highly pleomorphic bacteria that may occur in the forms of cocci, bacilli, or threads. The genus was named after Howard Taylor Ricketts in honor of his pioneering work on tick-borne spotted fever.

<i>Rickettsia rickettsii</i> Species of bacterium

Rickettsia rickettsii is a Gram-negative, intracellular, coccobacillus bacterium that was first discovered in 1902. R. rickettsii is the causative agent of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and is transferred to its host via a tick bite. It is one of the most pathogenic Rickettsia species and affects a large majority of the Western Hemisphere, most commonly the Americas.

Tick-borne diseases, which afflict humans and other animals, are caused by infectious agents transmitted by tick bites. They are caused by infection with a variety of pathogens, including rickettsia and other types of bacteria, viruses, and protozoa. The economic impact of tick-borne diseases is considered to be substantial in humans, and tick-borne diseases are estimated to affect ~80 % of cattle worldwide. Most of these pathogens require passage through vertebrate hosts as part of their life cycle. Tick-borne infections in humans, farm animals, and companion animals are primarily associated with wildlife animal reservoirs. many tick-borne infections in humans involve a complex cycle between wildlife animal reservoirs and tick vectors. The survival and transmission of these tick-borne viruses are closely linked to their interactions with tick vectors and host cells. These viruses are classified into different families, including Asfarviridae, Reoviridae, Rhabdoviridae, Orthomyxoviridae, Bunyaviridae, and Flaviviridae.

Murine typhus, also known as endemic typhus or flea-borne typhus, is a form of typhus transmitted by fleas, usually on rats, in contrast to epidemic typhus which is usually transmitted by lice. Murine typhus is an under-recognized entity, as it is often confused with viral illnesses. Most people who are infected do not realize that they have been bitten by fleas. Historically the term "hunger-typhus" was used in accounts by British POWs in Germany at the end of World War I when they described conditions in Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meningoencephalitis</span> Medical condition

Meningoencephalitis, also known as herpes meningoencephalitis, is a medical condition that simultaneously resembles both meningitis, which is an infection or inflammation of the meninges, and encephalitis, which is an infection or inflammation of the brain tissue.

Relapsing fever is a vector-borne disease caused by infection with certain bacteria in the genus Borrelia, which is transmitted through the bites of lice or soft-bodied ticks.

The body louse is a hematophagic ectoparasite louse that infests humans. It is one of three lice which infest humans, the other two being the head louse, and the crab louse or pubic louse.

Babesia, also called Nuttallia, is an apicomplexan parasite that infects red blood cells and is transmitted by ticks. Originally discovered by the Romanian bacteriologist Victor Babeș in 1888, over 100 species of Babesia have since been identified.

Paratransgenesis is a technique that attempts to eliminate a pathogen from vector populations through transgenesis of a symbiont of the vector. The goal of this technique is to control vector-borne diseases. The first step is to identify proteins that prevent the vector species from transmitting the pathogen. The genes coding for these proteins are then introduced into the symbiont, so that they can be expressed in the vector. The final step in the strategy is to introduce these transgenic symbionts into vector populations in the wild. One use of this technique is to prevent mortality for humans from insect-borne diseases. Preventive methods and current controls against vector-borne diseases depend on insecticides, even though some mosquito breeds may be resistant to them. There are other ways to fully eliminate them. “Paratransgenesis focuses on utilizing genetically modified insect symbionts to express molecules within the vector that are deleterious to pathogens they transmit.” The acidic bacteria Asaia symbionts are beneficial in the normal development of mosquito larvae; however, it is unknown what Asais symbionts do to adult mosquitoes.

A canine vector-borne disease (CVBD) is one of "a group of globally distributed and rapidly spreading illnesses that are caused by a range of pathogens transmitted by arthropods including ticks, fleas, mosquitoes and phlebotomine sandflies." CVBDs are important in the fields of veterinary medicine, animal welfare, and public health. Some CVBDs are of zoonotic concern.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anaplasmosis</span> Medical condition

Anaplasmosis is a tick-borne disease affecting ruminants, dogs, and horses, and is caused by Anaplasma bacteria. Anaplasmosis is an infectious but not contagious disease. Anaplasmosis can be transmitted through mechanical and biological vector processes. Anaplasmosis can also be referred to as "yellow bag" or "yellow fever" because the infected animal can develop a jaundiced look. Other signs of infection include weight loss, diarrhea, paleness of the skin, aggressive behavior, and high fever.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medical entomology</span> Study of insect impacts on human health

The discipline of medical entomology, or public health entomology, and also veterinary entomology is focused upon insects and arthropods that impact human health. Veterinary entomology is included in this category, because many animal diseases can "jump species" and become a human health threat, for example, bovine encephalitis. Medical entomology also includes scientific research on the behavior, ecology, and epidemiology of arthropod disease vectors, and involves a tremendous outreach to the public, including local and state officials and other stake holders in the interest of public safety.

Andrew Spielman was a prominent American public health entomologist and Professor of Tropical Public Health in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Disease at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH).

In epidemiology, a disease vector is any living agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen to another living organism; agents regarded as vectors are organisms, such as parasites or microbes. The first major discovery of a disease vector came from Ronald Ross in 1897, who discovered the malaria pathogen when he dissected a mosquito.

Rhipicephalus sanguineus, commonly called the brown dog tick, kennel tick, or pantropical dog tick, is a species of tick found worldwide, but more commonly in warmer climates. This species is unusual among ticks in that its entire lifecycle can be completed indoors. The brown dog tick is easily recognized by its reddish-brown color, elongated body shape, and hexagonal basis capituli. Adults are 2.28 to 3.18 mm in length and 1.11 to 1.68 mm in width. They do not have ornamentation on their backs.

Rickettsia australis is a bacterium that causes a medical condition called Queensland tick typhus. The probable vectors are the tick species, Ixodes holocyclus and Ixodes tasmani. Small marsupials are suspected reservoirs of this bacterium.

Rickettsia felis is a species of bacterium, the pathogen that causes cat-flea typhus in humans, also known as flea-borne spotted fever. Rickettsia felis also is regarded as the causative organism of many cases of illnesses generally classed as fevers of unknown origin in humans in Africa.

Global climate change has increased the occurrence of some infectious diseases. Infectious diseases whose transmission is impacted by climate change include, for example, vector-borne diseases like dengue fever, malaria, tick-borne diseases, leishmaniasis, zika fever, chikungunya and Ebola. One mechanism contributing to increased disease transmission is that climate change is altering the geographic range and seasonality of the insects that can carry the diseases. Scientists stated a clear observation in 2022: "the occurrence of climate-related food-borne and waterborne diseases has increased ."

References

↑ "Lyme disease - Symptoms and causes". Mayo Clinic .

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[1] "Lyme disease - Symptoms and causes". Mayo Clinic .

[1]

List of diseases spread by arthropods

Contents

Diseases

See also

Related Research Articles

References