Question:
If I clap my hands together and kill a Dengue mosquito that way, and I get blood on my hands, will I become infected?
Answer:
Not at all. For you to become infected, the mosquito has to regurgitate the live Dengue viruses from its gut and then inject them into your blood stream while taking a blood meal from you. It is like having a ’shot’ of something in the doctor’s office by the needle. You must get the prick, so to speak. In other words, the mosquito must bite.
But then again, it is not automatic that if you are bitten by an infected mosquito that you will get consciously sick. There is what you call an asymtomatic illness wherein you become infected with, say, the Dengue virus, but you show no signs and symptoms of the disease. Or that your reaction is so mild that you may put it down to the flu and never even check on it. You then get better and remain non the wiser that you actually had Dengue.
In short, just getting blood from a mosquito on your hands is not sufficient for you to contract Dengue.
According to the National Biological Information Infrastructure the West Nile virus (WNV) was first detected in the Western Hemisphere in 1999 and has since rapidly spread across the North American continent into all 48 continental states, seven Canadian provinces, and throughout Mexico. In addition, WNV activity has been detected in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Guadeloupe and El Salvador. (Source: http://www.mommypr.com/?p=8450)
