This is an example syllabus from Spring 1996. More than 200 million people in the tropics develop malaria each year. More than 300 million people in the developing countries of the world suffer from elephantiasis. Hundreds of millions of people suffer from viral diseases such as dengue and yellow fever that are transmitted by mosquitoes.
Few diseases impact where and how people live to the extent that malaria does.
However, these insects are most important as vectors of leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease that affects millions of people in developing countries throughout the world. In many areas of west Africa and in some areas of Central America as many as 25 percent of the population may be blind as a result of this disease.