QUESTION:
Can people get heartworm disease from mosquito bites?

ANSWER:
Answer from the American Heartworm Society Bulletin; Yes, it is possible. Fortunately, people are not natural hosts for heartworms. However, a few people are susceptiable enough for the larve (usually only one) to grow and migrate to their heart and lung arteries. In this case, the larvae usually die before they get old enough to produce microfilariae. The worms die slowly, and as they are dying, the person's body produces a wall around the worm. Most people (over 50%) infected with a heartworm or two never have symptoms, but some people (33%) will have chest pains, some (20%) will have a cough, and fewer (15%) will have a fever. Only about 1% will have the severe signs of spitting up blood or difficulty in breathing. Most people that are diagnosed with heartworms are "smokers", so when the physician sees the white spot (called a "coin lesion") on the chest X-Ray, they don't want to take the risk that it is a primary lung cancer, so they do painful surgery to remove the affected lung tissue, onl to find a dying worm. Unfortunately, there is no reliable diagnostic test for heartwrom in humans.

• Heartworm Prevention Info