MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS – PARASITES, TROPICAL LEECHES AND MOSQUITOES
In tropical countries there are many tiny parasites, such as mites, that penetrate the skin and cause cold or hot fevers. I myself once taught such an infection in the tropical jungle and only DDT was able to save my life. These tiny parasites are not visible to the naked eye. They stick to plants and when touched with bare arms or other parts of the body they attach themselves to the skin and enter through the pores. The resulting infection is referred to as ‘cold death’ because the body temperature progressively decreases until life ceases if no help is forthcoming in good time.
When you are roaming through the jungle, leeches may fall from the trees, drop onto you and attach themselves to your skin. These tropical bloodsuckers, however, are not harmless like their cousins in temperate zones, because they can cause blood poisoning. The mosquitoes in those areas are also dangerous and able to transmit malaria. This disease is rampant near the headwaters of the Amazon and no traveller there should dare to sleep without a mosquito net. Even so, these carriers of disease are equipped with a peculiar instinct that enables them to find every chink in a hut and tear in a net and so torment their victims. When I was visiting that area I often discovered some mosquitoes under my net in the morning and, on squashing them, would find them to be full of blood. It could have frightened me, but perhaps I am immune to malaria or the modest quantities of quinine I took to be on the safe side were enough to protect me. In Sri Lanka I came across another type of mosquito dreaded by everyone because it transmits the fateful disease called filariasis, or elephantiasis.
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