REVIEW - Wetlands and invertebrate disease hosts: Are we asking for trouble?

Abstract

Wetlands provide a range of benefits to society, and yet in South Africa wetlands continue to be affected by human activi ties. Considerable effort is now being directed towards rehabilitation of degraded wetlands and the construction of artificial systems to treat effluent and stormwater. At the same time, wetlands provide potential habitat for vectors or intermediate hosts (collectively referred to in this document as ‘invertebrate disease hosts’: IDHs), of parasites implicated in the transmission of such important diseases as malaria and schistosomiasis (bilharzia). The present review considers, for the 2 major IDHs (mosquitoes and schistosome-transmitting snails), the type of habitat required by the water-dependent life stage and the ways in which wetland degradation, rehabilitation and creation may affect the availability of suitable habitat. General practical measures for minimising pest species, particularly mosquitoes, are included.

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