Effects of fungal infection on feeding and survival of Anopheles gambiae (Diptera: Culicidae) on plant sugars.

Background: The entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae shows great promise for the control of adult malaria vectors. A promising strategy for infection of mosquitoes is supplying the fungus at plant feeding sites.

Methods: We evaluated the survival of fungus-exposed Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes (males and females) fed on 6% glucose and on sugars of Ricinus communis (Castor oil plant) and Parthenium hysterophorus (Santa Maria feverfew weed).

Tick-borne lymphadenopathy-like condition in an African woman in Kenya.

A 30-year-old African woman in Kenya succumbed to severe swollen regional lymph nodes, development of painful boils and ulcer formation and rashes at specific tick-biting sites together with an intermittent fever and headache following repeated tick bites of Rhipicephalus pulchellus. She later developed nuchal lymphadenopathy-like condition and an eschar with edematous margins at bitten sites. A sustained high fever and fatigue then followed.