Blood-sucking insects like mosquitoes are among the most dangerous disease transmitters in the world. Vector-borne diseases, which include malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever and others, cause more than 700,000 deaths worldwide each year, accounting for more than 17% of all infectious disease globally.
According to the World Health Organization, malaria alone, which is transmitted by the Anopheles mosquito, kills 400,000 people annually, most of them children under 5. In the U.S., mosquito bites can transmit viruses like West Nile, St. Louis encephalitis and La Crosse encephalitis, which in rare cases can be severe or deadly.