Diseases

Diseases carried by Insects

Flying insects, one of the largest orders of insects with some one hundred and ten thousand different species, have been a thorn in the side of man since time began. Many diseases are passed to man by flying insects either by direct transmission or by contamination of food. Such diseases as trachoma, malaria, and sleeping sickness are directly transmitted, whilst conditions such as diarrhoea, dysentery and typhoid are commonly transmitted by food contamination. Flies are not always villains however in their natural habitat they play an important part in clearing up our environment. Laying their eggs in rotting vegetable matter, manure and the cadavers of dead animals, they clear away the waste that would otherwise swamp our environment. It is when they infest buildings, in particular areas where food is handled, prepared, processed, packaged, stored or sold, that they become a pest and a serious health hazard. With the average fly carrying in excess of one million bacteria on its body it is a serious risk to hygiene and its dining manners are nothing short of disgraceful. When a fly lands on food the first thing it does is to regurgitate its stomach contents on to the surface of the food and then it lowers a feeding tube which it uses to spread the regurgitate on to the surface of the food to extract nutrients. It will then suck up this regurgitate and fly away leaving a potentially lethal mass of bacteria behind.

Of the many diseases spread by insects, very few are actually caused by the insects themselves but rather, by other organisms passed on when they feed or bite.

Insects are capable of spreading diseases caused by many different types of micro-organisms including bacteria, viruses, protozoans, etc. In these instances it is the micro-organism that is the pathogen (disease causer) and the insect involved is known as the vector.

Biting insects are active at all times of the day and night. However, some prefer different times of day eg.the mosquitoes that spread malaria are mainly active after dark but the mosquitoes that spread yellow fever and dengue fever are active during daylight hours.

Diseases carried by Cockroaches

Because cockroaches are omnivorous, they can feed in human foods, faeces, soiled dressings, drains and other pathogen-laden environments. It thus follows that cockroaches can be vectors of diseases andmany pathogens have been identified from their gut content. These include:

For this reason, cockroaches present a considerable risk in hospitals, for the pathogens they carry do not affect the insect but are indisciminately distributed through faeces and smears onto food and food surfaces to be picked up by humans.

Cockroaches are unsightly, disease carrying and damaging to property, food and reputation by contaminating products and kitchens. The resulting prosecutions by Environmental Health Authorities are costly.

Diseases carried by Flies

Flies move from filth to food carrying any disease they come in contact with. The main ones being linked to food hygiene, these include:

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