List of diseases caused by insects

Invertebrates are very common vectors of disease. A vector is an organism which spreads disease 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.

This is a list of diseases spread by invertebrates.

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)	Human, cattle	Fever then red urine	South Europe and Africa	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
Dengue fever	Mosquito	Flavivirus (virus)		Fever then arthritis	(Sub) tropics and South Europe	Observation/supportive treatment
Tick-borne encephalitis	Tick	Tick-borne encephalitis virus		Ill with flu then meningitis	Central and North Europe	prevention and vaccination
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	Skin rash then paralysis	Europe, North Africa, and North America	Prevention and antibiotics
Malaria	Mosquito	Plasmodium (protist)	Human	Headache then heavy fever	(Sub) tropics	Prevention and anti-malaria
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, lice	Rickettsia species (bacteria)		Fever with bleeding around the bite	Global	Prevention and antibiotics
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
West Nile disease	Mosquito	West Nile virus	Birds, human	Fever then meningitis	Africa, Asia, North America, South and East Europe	None

See also

• List of parasites (human)
• List of cutaneous conditions