Photos: Small Animals And Insects That Cause Deadly Diseases

These are some small animals and insects that harbour and transfers deadly diseases that have


claimed over a thousand victims and still counting,

They may be small in shape but when it comes to transferring deadly viruses , they rank high.

Mosquitoes - Malaria

Who would have thought this tiny ugly insects could be a killer but these mosquitoes through the malaria they transfer caused over one million deaths per year and are stated to have killed half of the people who have ever lived.

Malaria is however caused by the plasmodium parasite, which is spread to humans through the bites of infected mosquitoes ,The plasmodium parasite is spread by female Anopheles mosquitoes, which are known as "night-biting" mosquitoes because they most commonly bite between dusk and dawn.but if other mosquitoes bite a person already with malaria, they can also become infected and spread the parasite on to other people.

Bats - Ebola

Another notable mention in little animals that cause big disease is the fruit bat which is responsible for transferring the Ebloa virus like infected apes, chimpanzees etc but the bats are a major carrier and was responsible for the high rate of infections in west Africa, the first victim of Ebola, a two year old boy was said to have been fond of playing in a particular tree which was infested by fruit bats.

Freshwater Snails - Schistosomiasis

You might have not heard about this disease, but little brown freshwater snails cause the deaths of more than 10,000 people every year.They live in rivers and lakes in subtropical and tropical regions across the globe. When people drink the water, they ingest snail eggs. These burrow into the human stomach to lay their eggs, which cause the deadly disease called schistosomiasis associated with poor living conditions, overcrowding, and lack of sanitation or clean water. Symptoms can include paralysis of the legs and vomiting blood as well as flu-like symptoms caused by the immune system reacting to the eggs.

Rats - Lassa Fever

The list would be definitely incomplete without the annoying little squeaky buggers...rats, which harbours lassa virus that can be transferred to humans through their feces, urine, touching of infected rats, or even through grains and foods the infected rats have touched.it is known to cause around 5000 deaths annually. At some point in time, the disease was in the background but it is now rearing its head forcefully in West Africa especially Nigeria where many cases have been reported, and the mortality rate is much more than the survivors rate.

Houseflies - Ch0l£ra, Typhoid, Dysentery e.t.c

Though there might be arguments that houseflies shouldn't be present, but through their activities , they transfer pathogens of easily communicable diseases like typhoid, ch0l£ra, dysentery,tuberculosis etc which since their inceptions have caused over 2 million deaths and a considerable number of people still die from diseases transferred by houseflies yearly.