Guest post by Dr Rod J Dillon (@sandflyman) Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Health and Medicine, Lancaster University, UK. As part of collaborative study between teams working at Lancaster University in the UK, IOC-FIOCRUZ and UFPI in Brazil, we have shown that sand flies carrying Leishmania are able to survive attack by a bacterial pathogen that… Read more »
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For those in the northern hemisphere, summer holidays are upon us and with them comes the pleasure of taking part in fresh water sports. But beware, minuscule parasites may be lurking in seemingly tranquil waters ready to burrow into exposed skin and cause an extremely itchy rash to develop. Swimmer’s itch was first described in… Read more »
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Mosquitoes that transmit malaria are attracted to individuals by the profile of their body odour. Differences in odour profile make some people more attractive to mosquitoes than others, thus mosquito biting is non-random. Malaria infections increase attractiveness, making it more likely that infected people are bitten and the parasites are passed on to others. Parasitic… Read more »