I know there are diseases that are gender dependent (rather harmone dependent), but I didnt know that Dengue was also gender dependent! Today, I saw somebody reading the 'Home' section of Straits Times on the MRT which carried a huge illustration of how Dengue infects men and women. The first half was about dengue mosquitoes infecting men and the second half was about how infected women inturn infect the mosquitoes!
A google search didnt yield any link to women being the only people who can infect the mosquitoes with dengue virus (to make them carriers). Is it true? Can anyone confirm this?
(I cant access the Straitstimes website as it is paid membership =()
Update: As Mitokondrion says, it was simply an act of political correctness to show the cycle of Dengue in Singapore (use men first and then women). Perhaps the caption should have been well formed instead of putting it as 'women infect mosquitoes' it could be something like 'patient infects mosquitoes'- definitely less gender biased!
Comments
3 years 8 weeks ago, Maran wrote:
All I know female mozzies give ppl dengue. Male mozzies don't bite ppl. This is the first time I'm hearing about women infecting mosquitoes. You suuure or not? :-)
3 years 8 weeks ago, divya wrote:
Maran: Yup, I am sure. I distinctly remember the words 'How Women infect the mosquitoes'!
3 years 8 weeks ago, Chugs wrote:
once a person has been infected with the virus the virus circulates in his blood. there after any mosquito which sucks blood from the infected person might ingest the virus. i dont think it has anything to do with the gender of the person. will post a link later if i can find something.
3 years 8 weeks ago, divya wrote:
Chugs: Exactly. Thats what I thought too!
3 years 8 weeks ago, mitokondrion wrote:
Hey I checked the ST article, they've just illustrated the spread of the virus from an infected man to a mosquito that bites him; the moz then bites another person, in this case a woman (polit correctness perhaps?!) and she in turn becomes infected and can pass on the virus to the next mozzie that sucks her blood.. and so the cycle goes.... :) so nope, no gender-link to this disease...for now anyways!
*sorry for detailing, bane of being a biologist*
3 years 8 weeks ago, Arun Kedarinathan wrote:
the first image that my mind drew after reading that blog title was that of a woman trying to bite a mosquito. now that would be the kinda news i'd expect the slimes to carry.
sorry for the totally irrelevant comment but for the sake of gender equality let me also add that i totally believe that women are as capable as men (if not better) in infecting mosquitoes
3 years 8 weeks ago, divya wrote:
Arun: LOL! Thank Ye for the dose of humour instantly shaking the last vestige of sleep from my groggy eyes!
And thank you for your statements on women empowerment. I am sure, the feminist groups are just throwing themselves at your door to subscribe you to their respective groups!
3 years 8 weeks ago, antrix wrote:
hehe.. the first thing that popped up in my mind as I was reading this post was 'equal opportunity illustration' ;-)
3 years 7 weeks ago, nmk wrote:
Hey Divya:
How bad is the Dengue problem in Singapore.
nmk