Is the coronavirus transmitted through the bite of a mosquito or tick?

With the onset of heat, as you know, blood-suck­ing mos­qui­toes and sticky mites come out to hunt. Dur­ing the glob­al coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic, peo­ple are afraid of insects with renewed vig­or. How­ev­er, are they real­ly that dan­ger­ous?

Many peo­ple are very afraid of con­tract­ing a coro­n­avirus infec­tion. Some even had the idea that COVID-19 can be caught through the bite of a mos­qui­to or tick, which active­ly appear in the spring-sum­mer sea­son.

It is no secret that the dis­ease is trans­mit­ted by air­borne droplets and con­tact, but so far no infec­tion has been heard about infec­tion through insects. The WHO and the CDC respond­ed if there was a pos­si­bil­i­ty of such a spread of the infec­tion.

WHAT THE WHO SAYS

The World Health Orga­ni­za­tion decid­ed to answer the ques­tion of con­cern to the pop­u­la­tion. Accord­ing to the agency, at the moment there is no evi­dence that the new coro­n­avirus can be trans­mit­ted by mos­qui­toes.

COVID-19 infec­tion is a res­pi­ra­to­ry virus that is spread through droplets pro­duced when an infect­ed per­son coughs or sneezes, or through droplets of sali­va or nasal dis­charge.

WHAT THE CDC SAYS

The U.S. Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion also explained infor­ma­tion about whether mos­qui­toes or ticks can spread virus­es. Accord­ing to them, so far there is no evi­dence that COVID-19 or oth­er sim­i­lar coro­n­avirus­es (for exam­ple, SARS, MERS) are trans­mit­ted by mos­qui­toes or ticks.

The fact is that the trans­mis­sion of a virus to a per­son from an insect is pos­si­ble only if the virus itself mul­ti­plies inside a mos­qui­to or tick. How­ev­er, such cas­es have not yet been record­ed, which means you should not be afraid.

How­ev­er, a mos­qui­to bite can real­ly be dan­ger­ous. Experts in the field of med­i­cine warn that, first of all, one should be wary of blood-suck­ing crea­tures that live in base­ments, on musty and neglect­ed reser­voirs. They can car­ry var­i­ous kinds of infec­tions. But those mos­qui­toes that are cir­cling in a park or for­est areas can only pro­voke irri­ta­tion from a bite.

As for ticks, they are most often found in forests, in thick­ets of alder, hazel, rasp­ber­ry and damp mead­ows. They are also dan­ger­ous to ani­mals and humans, as they can trans­mit pathogens of cer­tain dis­eases. Among these: Lyme dis­ease (tick-borne bor­re­lio­sis) or tick-borne encephali­tis.

Be very care­ful when walk­ing in nature. Try to wear as close clothes as pos­si­ble so as not to pick up a tick. And most impor­tant­ly, fol­low the mea­sures to pre­vent infec­tion and the spread of coro­n­avirus.

So, wash your hands, use an anti­sep­tic, wear a mask, pro­tec­tive gloves and try not to leave the house with­out a cer­tain need. This is the only way to pro­tect your­self and your loved ones from the pos­si­bil­i­ty of con­tract­ing COVID-19.

Pho­to: freepik

Source: moirebenok.ua