World Mosquito Day
Put on your party hats
MARIE SCHELLENBERG
I’m always looking for reasons to party, but even I have my limits. I discovered as I tuned in to Bob FM that Sunday, August 20 is none other than “World Mosquito Day.” My first thought was that this was a joke. Why on earth would a day be dedicated to a creature that spoils leisure time, interferes with people’s work, and causes a buffet of mosquito-borne diseases like West Nile virus, malaria and yellow fever? I’d rather celebrate my great grandmother’s false teeth.
However, as I thought about this absurd holiday, I recalled a few times when yes, mosquitoes had been my friends. Like the time I was drinking a really bad-tasting drink that my new boyfriend had mixed and a mosquito made a splash landing in it. “Oooh, sorry dear, I’m soooo disappointed I can’t drink this, but I simply cannot stomach the thought of that mosquito being in my drink!” Or the time when a really bad blind date in the park had to end abruptly because of the number of biting mosquitoes. Yes, mosquitoes had served me well a few times. I figured that maybe I should at least honour them by trying to understand their “special day.”
It all began on August 16, 1897, in a little laboratory in Hyderabad, India when Dr. Ronald Ross, a renowned physician, began dissecting mosquitoes that had fed on a malarious patient. On August 20, he dissected another mosquito, and found many of these cells on the stomach wall of the mosquito. He concluded that these were the malaria parasite stages in the mosquito. This was significant because until then, no one had any idea of how parasites in the blood of malarious patients were transmitted via mosquitoes. Further experiments by Ross showed that the cells contained sporozoites, which then spread to the salivary glands, and from in the salivary glands these parasites conferred malaria infection. It is for this work that Ross was awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1902. It was also for this work that Ross himself declared August 20 World Mosquito Day.
Wow, okay, this really was an amazingly important (albeit very boring) discovery. But why on earth wasn’t August 20 declared “Malaria Transmission Discovery Day” or “Dr. Ross Day?” Better yet, why don’t we celebrate “Hamburger Day” since we now know that uncooked hamburger meat causes E. coli? I just don’t quite get it. However, I am in the mood to party this weekend, so I thought I would see how other people are planning to celebrate World Mosquito Day.
Roger, a man in his mid-50s, indicated that he had never heard of World Mosquito Day. I gave him the low-down on the day, and asked him how he would be spending it. He replied, “I guess I’ll go buy a case of beer.” It was a good generic Manitoban response to questions we have no other answer for. (“Joan, where are my car keys?” “I don’t know, I’ll go buy a case of beer.” It works for everything!)
A random university student, who declined to give his name, had also heard about World Mosquito Day on the radio. When asked what he would be doing to celebrate the day, he stated that maybe he would, and I quote, “catch a basket full of mosquitoes and pee on them.” Apparently he has a little pent up anger towards mosquitoes there, a sentiment shared by most Winnipeggers.
Barbara, also a student at the University of Manitoba, had never heard about World Mosquito Day either and was convinced I was pulling her leg. So she pulled mine in return: “I think I will invite all the little mosquitoes over to my house for tea on World Mosquito Day,” she said.
When I Googled World Mosquito Day, I found only a few references to it. The University of Georgia website had a short paragraph about the origins of the day. The Environmental Information System website had put out a “special issue” newsletter in honor of the day. I was hoping to find parade, fireworks, or street festival information on line, but nada. Nothing came up. Hmm . . . I wonder if Sam Katz would consider it?
Well, I think I will adopt Roger’s approach to the day and grab myself a six-pack of beer to help me celebrate this joyous occasion. And as I sit in my backyard, wearing longsleeved clothing to protect as much of my body as possible from West Nile virus-carrying mosquitoes and wearing repellant to cover any remaining exposed skin, I’ll reminisce about the years and years of vicious, bloodthirsty mosquitoes that we as Manitobans have endearingly endured. And I will raise my glass to those mosquitoes and make a toast: mosquitoes suck!
Happy World Hamburger Day everyone!
