The Tsetse fly, or the Tik Tik fly is the most dangerous fly in world. They may look like a common house fly but they take thousands of lives each year. Their life-cycle is short but incredibly deadly.
Tsetse flies are an aggressive, biting fly that feeds on the blood of other animals. They have wings that fully fold on top of each other and have long, tubular mouths attached by a bulb at the bottom of its head. These flies are located in mid-continental Africa between Sahara and Kalahari Desert.
The Tsetse fly is notorious for transmitting deadly diseases through injecting a trypanosoma parasite into the body when it bites an animal. The fly will transmit the disease which is commonly called African sleeping sickness. This will shut down the central nervous system and invades the brain and eventually causes death.
If you’ve been unlucky enough to be bitten by a Tsetse fly, you should seek medical attention immediately. The disease will be treated depending on which stage of trypanosomiasis you’re at. In the first stage, lower toxicity drugs are used. However, in the second stage more potent drugs are used. If left untreated, the patient will become much weaker and will die due to the trypanosoma parasite taking over your body.
On average, over the course of a year roughly 9000 people are killed due to the Tsetse fly transmitting the trypanosoma parasite into the bodies of its unwilling victims.
A small fly that packs a punch. So the question is would you rather be bit a tsetse fly? Or encounter a violent tornado?