Mosquito-borne disease
Mosquito-borne diseases or mosquito-borne illnesses are diseases caused by bacteria, viruses or parasites transmitted by mosquitoes. They can transmit disease without being affected themselves. Nearly 700 million people get a mosquito-borne illness each year resulting in over one million deaths.
Jean Charles Faget
His medical practice began during an era when yellow fever was a tremendous problem in New Orleans. The exact cause of yellow fever was not known at the time. Early scientists believed that it was caused by environmental problems like rotting food, weather conditions, and poor sanitation. Faget's observations of the disease prompted him to believe that the disease could be attributed to a specific microorganism. It is now known that yellow fever is a virus that is transmitted by the bite of female mosquitoes (the yellow fever mosquito, "Aedes aegypti", and other species) and is found in tropical and subtropical areas in South America and Africa. The origin of the disease is most likely to be Africa, from where it was introduced to South America through the slave trade in the 16th century. During Faget's lifetime, yellow fever was deemed one of the most dangerous infectious diseases.