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Encyclopaedia Britannica thistle graphic to be used with a Mendel/Consumer quiz in place of a photograph.
44 Questions from Britannica’s Most Popular Health and Medicine Quizzes
Discover
Two chicks near an egg with a white background (poultry, chick, chickens, birds).
What Do Eggs Have to Do with Easter?
Albert Einstein in Washington, D.C. c. 1921-1923. Physicist
The Solar Eclipse That Made Albert Einstein a Science Celebrity
Solar Eclipse, Eclipse, Solar Flare, Outer Space, Astronomy
What Causes Lunar and Solar Eclipses?
Black widow spider
9 of the World’s Deadliest Spiders
Pluto. The Changing Faces of Pluto. Most detailed view to date of the entire surface of the dwarf planet Pluto, as constructed from multiple NASA Hubble Space Telescope photographs taken from 2002 to 2003.
10 Important Dates in Pluto History
Periodical Cicada, Adult, Magicicada spp. Requires 17 years to complete development. Nymph splits its skin, and transforms into an adult. Feeds on sap of tree roots. Northern Illinois Brood. This brood is the largest emergence of cicadas anywhere
Why Do Some Cicadas Appear Only Every 17 Years?
VAN, TURKEY - OCTOBER 25: A building and car ruined during the earthquake of Van-Ercis on October 25, 2011 in Van, Turkey. It is 604 killed and 4152 injured in Van-Ercis Earthquake.
What Is an Aftershock?

carrier

of disease
Also known as: vector

Learn about this topic in these articles:

Assorted References

  • cause of typhoid epidemics
    • Salmonella typhi
      In typhoid fever

      …contaminated, however, by a human carrier of the disease who is employed in handling and processing them; by flies; or by the use of polluted water for cleaning purposes. Shellfish, particularly oysters, grown in polluted water and fresh vegetables grown on soil fertilized or contaminated by untreated sewage are other…

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role of

    insects

    • brain cancer; magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
      In disease: Epidemiology

      …by means of an insect carrier, or vector. Often animal parasites have intermediate hosts in which one or more phases of their life cycles occur; this results in an obligatory sequence of hosts in the life history of the parasite. With the disease schistosomiasis in humans, for example, the blood…

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    • insect diversity
      In insect: Medical significance

      …by insects, which serve as vectors of pathogens. Malaria is caused by the protozoan Plasmodium, which spends part of its developmental cycle in Anopheles mosquitoes. Epidemic relapsing fever, caused by spirochetes, is transmitted by the louse

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    • fleas
      • lice
        • human head louse
          In louse

          …dog lice is the intermediate host of the dog tapeworm, and a rat louse is a transmitter of murine typhus among rats.

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      • sand flies
        • In sand fly

          …Asia, Phlebotomus transmits the pappataci fever virus; and in parts of South America, Africa, and Asia it carries the protozoan parasites causing kala azar, Oriental sore, espundia, and bartonellosis. The name sand fly is also used for certain species of the black fly and biting midge (qq.v) families.

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      • Typhoid Mary
        • Typhoid Mary
          In Typhoid Mary

          ) infamous typhoid carrier who allegedly gave rise to multiple outbreaks of typhoid fever.

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      • viruses
        • blight
          In plant disease: Transmission

          …and mites, which are called vectors of the virus. The principal virus-carrying insects are about 200 species of aphids, which transmit mostly mosaic viruses, and more than 100 species of leafhoppers, which carry yellows-type viruses. Whiteflies, thrips,

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