The book also tells the story of some of the mosquito species that contribute to human diseases such as malaria, filariasis,dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and Japanese encephalitis. These diseases have played an important role in slowing down the national progress through depleted economy, healthand intelligentsia. The country spends almost 50% of its health budget in fighting against these ailments. Therefore, it emerges that, besides the brutal facts of how the mosquito has insinuated itself into human history, from the malaria that devastated invaders of ancient Rome (Alexander ‘The Great’had reportedly died due to Plasmodium falciparum malaria while returning home after the battle with the Indian king Poru in the malaria infested Punjab region),the story of man's struggle to live with the mosquito, from the early 19th Century malaria-defeat inMian Mir under direct charge of DrSamuel Rickard Christophers, who advocated to Dr Ronalad Ross’s theory of ‘environment sanitation’,to the malaria-deaths of hundreds of rural inhabitants living in The Thar Desert’s irrigated Command Area under the world famous Indira Gandhi Nahar Pariyojana, in the early 1990s,and to the recent panic over the chikungunya virus’ in Kerala, as well as many other States and Union Territories, crippling thousands of people, in 2006, and deaths from dengue all over the country during 2012-14, need to be told to the modern generation of medical entomologists and vector-borne disease specialists to relive the moments of victories and defeats in this vicious age-old battle between man andmosquito. At the end we find that we have only ourselves to be blamed to a great extent for accelerating the spread of mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit; with climate change and increased international travel, mosquito-borne illnesses are flaring up all over the globe. Catastrophic failures of mosquito control have ensured that worldwide even now one person dies of malaria every twelve seconds. This book describes, ina mosquito's-eye view, how mosquito breeds, rests, feeds, flies, mate, and dies, besidesinteraction with her natural enemies. The book also deals with the current constraints and future control prospects of mosquito control. In view of the increasing resistance to insecticides and chemotherapy, the book throws light on the subject of greatest promise to ending mosquitoes' deadly assault on man by render them impotent by genetic manipulation by replacing them through paratransgenesis involving micro-organisms such as bacteria and fungi.

This book is the author’s answer to the question Who do you think you are? set in China, Russia, Egypt, Kenya, Fiji and the US during the 18th to 20th centuries. It describes the battle to discover the causes of malaria. Sir Patrick Manson, the author’s great-grandfather, known as Mosquito Manson, was the first scientist to prove that insects were vectors of disease, a discovery which led to the detection of the malarial parasite. He founded the Chinese Medical School in Hong Kong and the London School of Tropical Medicine. Among his pupils was Sun Yat-sen, the first President of modern China. It is the story too of plagues and pandemics, of Scottish and German merchants who made their fortunes in 19th century Egypt and 18th century Russia. The author’s mother, orphaned by the Spanish flu, made her way to Africa where she served as a FANY in 1942, marrying Clinton, the third in the family line of tropical medical specialists. The chapters are interspersed with the author’s own childhood memories growing up in Fiji and Kenya.

Mosquito Hunter is Clifford Muteros first autobiographical account. It focuses on the evolution of his entomological career, which was ignited in his early childhood from around the age of six up to the stage when he completed his PhD studies in insect science at age thirty. It is a one-of-a-kind narration that sets out geosocial, historical, and entomological facts with a brand of humor that has the potential to instruct and inspire a new generation of would-be natural scientists through the soft lore behind scientific investigation. Set mainly in a quintessentially rural farming community in Central Kenya and also in coastal Kenya, this narration reflects the abundance of stories based on village events, which were enriched by news and music from the wider world via the bridging power of radio. Significantly, Mosquito Hunter pays high tribute to the various mentors who inspired the author towards research of the natural environment. Chief among them is his father, Felix Mutero, whose all-round mastery of efficient farming practices provided a master class of sorts to the future scholar. Themes ranging from health, education, love, family, music, poverty, and professional politics are all woven into this telling of the making of that rare species, the African insect scientist.

Dengue fever is the world’s most prevalent mosquito-borne illness, but Alex Nading argues that people in dengue-endemic communities do not always view humans and mosquitoes as mortal enemies. Drawing on two years of ethnographic research in urban Nicaragua and challenging current global health approaches to animal-borne illness, Mosquito Trails tells the story of a group of community health workers who struggle to come to terms with dengue epidemics amid poverty, political change, and economic upheaval. Blending theory from medical anthropology, political ecology, and science and technology studies, Nading develops the concept of “the politics of entanglement” to describe how Nicaraguans strive to remain alive to the world around them despite global health strategies that seek to insulate them from their environments. This innovative ethnography illustrates the continued significance of local environmental histories, politics, and household dynamics to the making and unmaking of a global pandemic.

This pop-science volume is Paul de Kruif’s classic account of microscopic discoveries, and it presents a history of the most important figures in medicine. Microbe Hunters is separated into 14 stories of pioneering scientists, including Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632​​–1723) and Louis Pasteur (1822​​–1895). The dramatised records of important scientific figures and the history of medicine are written in simple, accessible language. Becoming an international bestseller, the volume was translated into 18 languages and adapted for the stage and screen. This volume features the following chapters: - ‘Leeuwenhoek: First of the Microbe Hunters’ - ‘Spallanzani: Microbes Must Have Parents!’ - ‘Pasteur: Microbes Are a Menace!’ - ‘Koch: The Death Fighter’ - ‘Pasteur: And the Mad Dog’ - ‘Roux and Behring: Massacre the Guinea-Pigs’ - ‘Metchnikoff: The Nice Phagocytes’ - ‘Theobald Smith: Ticks and Texas Fever’ First published in 1926, Microbe Hunters remains one of the most encompassing classic accounts of microbiology history and is not to be missed by those who wish to extend their scientific knowledge.

The surprising true story of how the course of human history was redirected, time and again, by the pesky mosquito.