04 Apr 2022
Setting it Straight: Japanese Encephalitis part 3: in the mosquito and on the straight and narrow
All arboviruses infect humans (and/or other vertebrates) by the bite of one or other haematophagous (blood -feeding mosquito, tick or sandfly) arthropod (#97, #98). With Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), the proboscis of a female Culex spp ‘flying needle’ mosquito inserts into the lumen of a small blood vessel. As that skin/blood vessel wall barrier is breached, two ‘pump organs’ in the mosquito’s head push saliva and gut fluids (which contain anti-clotting agents and JEV virions) into us while taking the blood meal needed to sustain the insect’s eggs. The innocuous males feed on nectar.