Question

Which of the following diseases spread by the mosquito?
A) Malaria
B) Dengue
C) Chikungunya
D) All of the above

Answer 1

Hint:- Malaria is a disease caused by plasmodium and is transmitted by a vector that is infected with plasmodium. Chikungunya is a viral infection and requires a vector for its transmission. Dengue is also a viral disease requiring a vector for transmission.

Complete step-by-step solution:-
All the three diseases mentioned above are vector borne. The vector in all the three cases are mosquitoes. Thus, all of the above are mosquito borne diseases.
Plasmodium is the malarial parasite. The vector for malaria is the female anopheles mosquito. The names of certain species are A.gambiae complex in the African region, A. freeborni in North America, and A.culicifacies, A. fluviatilis, A. minimus, A.philippinensis, A.stephensi are among 45 other species of Anopheles that transmit malaria in India as India is a malaria endemic country.
Dengue and chikungunya viruses are also transmitted by female mosquitoes. The vectors for them is the Aedes mosquito – Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus.
These transmissions are from man to man. When a healthy mosquito bites an infected person, it picks up the causative agent along with its blood meal. Now this agent multiplies in the mosquito and is stored in the salivary glands of the mosquito. When the infected mosquito bites a healthy person, it injects the person with the causative agent thus leading to the formation of disease in the healthy person.
The correct answer is Option D.

Note:- Malaria is a parasitic disease while dengue and chikungunya are viral diseases. The male mosquitoes do not transmit the diseases. It is only the female mosquitoes that can transmit the disease from one person to the other. These diseases can only be controlled by doing vector control i.e. destroying the breeding places of the mosquitoes and preventing their growth.