Tropical medicine ward

Am now working on the "tropical medicine" firm in UCLH. We got a good crop of interesting infections from around the world at the moment, with a speical emphasis on insect-transmitted diseases at present.

So I thought I'd present the insects that have caused the illnesses and a little about them...

First


The distinctive black+white aedes mosquito, common in many rural areas as it likes to breed in clean still water (your rooftop watertank ideal). This transmits dengue (which our patient has, we think), yellow fever also. Quite an attractive beast, and probably much more dangerous to you that things much more tradtionally scary...


Next


This is sandfly. They are actually really tiny and silent fliers, so people usually aren't aware of bites. They transmit leischmaniasis in Meditteranean, Middle East, India and Carribean. We mainly see it in British army types who have been doing their jungle warfare training in Belize. That disease gives horrible ulcers




This last beasty comes from closer to home - it is a hard tick and one of these bit our patient in near Amersham, just north west of London ! Unfortunately she has developed Lyme Disease. This is more common in Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and eastern US seabord, not terribly well known in UK, but much feared!