Coming from a pretty cold and bleak corner of the globe, I didn't really know what a mosquito looked like until I went on my backpacking tour of North America back in the early 2000's. Up until then, I had no experience with the little blighters, let alone know what harms they could cause. Well, the mosquitoes West Nile Virus (WNV), soon woke me up to the dangers of these tiny menaces.
The mosquitoes West Nile Virus was the talk of the back packing circuit and although I found it exciting to begin with, the novelty soon wore off when I realized that mosquitoes were as attracted to me as kids are to candy.
As one of my friendly traveling companions pointed out it's a numbers game. "The more times you get bitten, the greater the chances are of contracting the deadly mosquitoes West Nile Virus" he said. He also went on to say that thousands of Americans have already contracted the virus, thousands more have it but as yet are undetected, and more than 500 have died because of it at the time of our conversation. Yes, my backpacking buddy was certainly a cheerful chapie, but despite his gloomy outlook, I had to quickly become an expert at preventing and treating mosquito bites if nothing else.
There were a lot of seasoned travelers around and so tips on repelling insect bites were in abundance. Some carried remedies for soothing the irritation of bites which included the world famous calamine lotion. More savvy conscious travelers used baking sodas. One guy pointed out that if you don't relieve an irritating bite, you will find yourself scratching it and that could aggravate it more. He showed me where a tiny mozzie bite on his calf had turned into a tropical ulcer because of this. He told me it got so bad that he had to be hospitalized in order to treat if properly.
It was becoming apparent to me that the mosquitoes West Nile Virus was not the only concern I should have and so I listened intently to further tips from these 'non-medical professionals'. Another bizarre suggestion was to use the hot head of a mach stick to reduce the itch issue. I was informed that this method was also good at removing ticks from under the skin. Obviously one has to be careful not to get burnt using such methods! The trick here seems to be a quick tap with the hot match head directly on the bite.
A few other remedies were worth noting but not really useful to the travelers medical tool kit. One such treatment was an oatmeal bath mix and another was to rest an ice cube on the bite. A little more out of the ordinary was the application of clear nail polish which is supposed to really take the irritation out of the itch.
But knowing what I'd learnt about the mosquitoes West Nile Virus, I was all ears for preventative measures and so got educated pretty quickly on insect repellents. Now the trick with these is to purchase a small amount of repellant from your home country as a temporary solution, but as soon as you are able, you need to buy from the country you're traveling in. The reason is simple. Whether you're in North America, Africa, Asia, or wherever, they know what works best for the area and quite often their repellents are far more effective than what you would probably buy back home.
Citrus seems to play an important role in repellents and I found that Citronella Oil was absolutely fantastic at keeping the pests away. Many travelers also carry an ultra lightweight and compact mosquito net in their packs for when they're sleeping.
Whether it's the mosquitoes West Nile Virus, Malaria, Dengue Fever or just some irritating bite, it's important to know what preventative measures to take. These basically involve covering up, using repellents, and sleeping under a net. Remember, simple prevention techniques are much better than curing infections, so practice prevention over cure wherever possible.
Andy Maingam is an expert writer for BloodIssues.com where he writes on such issues as High Blood Pressure Causes and Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. He also has other blood related articles on the site.
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