QUESTION

Is malaria similar to Ross river Fever which is common in Australia? If you have Ross River and get bitten by a mosquito can the mosquito pass it on to some one else.

ANSWER

Ross River fever is similar to malaria in that both are transmitted by mosquitoes. However, Ross River fever is caused by a virus, whereas malaria is caused by a protozoan (single-celled) parasite. Also, the type of mosquitoes they use are different. Malaria can only be transmitted by mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles, whereas the Ross River fever virus is usually transmitted by Aedes or Culex mosquitoes.

Another difference is that Ross River virus also infects lots of other mammals, with kangaroos and wallabies key reservoir species in the wild, whereas the species of malaria which infect humans are more or less limited to us (though there have been cases of human malaria infecting closely related animals, such as gorillas and chimpanzees).

As for your other question, as far as I know there is no reason why a mosquito infected with Ross River virus couldn’t bite multiple humans or other mammals, and thus transmit the disease to several new hosts.