No. Just for once this isn’t about mapping a microbial genome. This is where you can find some disease distribution maps for the infections we’ve already covered on the road to the FACTM pt 1 exam.

Try these out for size, making note of your answers as you go.

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The correct answers can be found via these links:

• neglected bacterial infections
• arbovirus infections

Happy hunting.

No, this post has nothing to do with deception, mendacity or plain lying.

This is about the group of mosquitoes that includes Aedes aegypti; that carrier of yellow fever and dengue. A. aegypti has lyre-shaped markings on the upper surface of its thorax, black and white legs and is one of the most successful Culicine mosquitoes. Its close relative, Aedes albopictus, sometimes known as the “Asian tiger mosquito”, has a silver stripe along the length of its thorax. Both are featured in the lecture notes on Culicine mosquitoes, which form a part of the FACTM pt 1 Arbovirus infections.

So there you have it: ‘borne lyre’ is a helpful little mnemonic that links the arthropod borne (arbo-) viruses with the Aedes group, and A.aegypti, in particular.

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It’s time for a bit of variety. Sadly, we need to move on from malaria to deal with other arthropod-borne diseases. Next, it’s the turn of the arbovirus infections, with particular emphasis on the ones that we encounter more often in our own region. Next Tuesday (11th May, 2010) we’re running the arbovirus infection unit in our Clinical Tropical Medicine series. There will be two mini-lectures, the first of which is reproduced here for wider educational use. The second will be  a Medical Entomology module on the arthropod vectors of arbovirus infection.

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