Kevin’s Blog

For exciting news a cat named Ziggy was stuck in a shipping container on a boat traveling 2,300 miles from England to Israel. This was a 17 day long trip! Imagine going 17 days without food or water in a box. Ziggy certainly went through alot. James Ratcliff of the Royal Society for the prevention of Cruelty to Animals said,”He was scared to death.”

You have probably been hearing about the west nile virus but another dangerous disease brought by mosquitoes is malaria. When a mosquito bites you a parasite in it’s gut and saliva can enter your bloodstream. After this the infected person will get sick with symptoms of the flu. If the infected person is not treated the parasite can get to your brain and turn the disease deadly. This disease is most common in Africa. 1,000,000 people die every year of malaria. Because of

this a mosquito killing pesticide called DDT was made. Unfortunately DDT was discovered to harm other wildlife so it could not be used. Mosquitoes with the malaria disease are most likely to bite at night so people are putting up bed nets. If nets are dipped in insecticide every six months it will kill insects that land on it. A drugs called artemisinins can cure malaria but a vaccine is better for the job so scientists are working on it.