Squashing Mosquitoes Could Make You Ill

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http://www.healthtalk.ca/mosquito_07192004_8221.php

.... people who squash mosquitoes against their skin could increase the risk

of serious infection. Doctors in the US are warning people to avoid the

natural response to squash the insects but instead recommend giving the

bloodsuckers a flick.

The warning comes after a 57-year-old Pennsylvania woman died in 2002 from a

fungal infection in her muscles, called Brachiola algerae.

The doctors indicated a simple mosquito bite could not have caused the

infection, due to the fact that the saliva of a mosquito does not contain

the fungus responsible for the infection. However, the fungus is found

within the body of the insect.

Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, doctors believe the woman

probably developed the infection by smearing body parts of the insect t into

a bite.