What Happens to You When Mosquito Bites Don’t Heal Over Time?

Bug bites are uncomfortable and annoying to deal with. But when mosquito bites don’t heal, you could be dealing with more than just itchiness here. You could be dealing with dangerous infections and diseases that could affect your entire body.

Firstly, you’ll need to make sure that what you have is actually a mosquito bite. Other bugs look very similar to mosquitoes, so make sure you’ve properly identified the bite.

Most of the time, mosquito bites are nothing to be afraid of, but there are some exceptions. Let’s jump in and find out exactly what may happen if your bite doesn’t heal properly over time.

Small Bacterial Infection

So most likely, if the bite isn’t healing, an infection has taken over it. This one is caused by excessive scratching. When we scratch so much, it breaks open the skin and invites bacteria from the outside.

This kind of infection generally lasts for a couple of days. It may be longer than how the usual bite heals, but it does eventually go away without any complications.

So this isn’t something that you should worry about. Nevertheless, you should still let your doctor check the bite, just in case.

Major Bacterial Infection

The grimmer side to a small bacterial infection are several conditions that can affect the entire body. This happens when the person infected doesn’t have the kind of antibodies that can swiftly fight the contaminants off or when the body is simply overwhelmed with the pathogens invading it.

One example is folliculitis, the inflammation of the hair follicles. This happens when that tiny pouch in your skin that’s responsible for growing hair gets bacteria and swells up. Folliculitis often looks like overgrown pimples that are painful when disturbed.

Additionally, there’s also impetigo and a staph infection. While impetigo has symptoms that include red soars and blisters with an oozy liquid that can appear anywhere in your body, a staph infection can affect your joints, lungs, bones and even your heart.

Malaria

One thing you should remember about bites that don’t seem to heal is Malaria.

Malaria is caused by a parasitic plasmodium, a group of tiny microscopic organisms that thrive inside animal and human bodies. They travel using the bloodstream and land on the liver to reproduce, effectively taking over the body in just a few days.

Malaria is extremely dangerous. It causes thousands of deaths every year. But if you suspect having this condition, you could suffer from flu-like symptoms such as fever, chills, and headaches, respiratory problems and anemia.

West Nile Virus

The flavivirus or West Nile causes a fatal neurological disease called West Nile fever.

It’s a virus that triggers headaches, nausea, vomiting, rashes, excessive tiredness, muscle pain and loss of appetite. And in more serious cases, you’ll also experience convulsions, disorientation and paralysis.

The West Nile fever is as dangerous as malaria, so it should not be taken lightly.

Skeeter Syndrome

Skeeter syndrome is different from most of the conditions we talked about. That’s because it’s not caused by destructive outside forces like viruses and bacteria. It’s simply an allergic reaction to the mosquito’s saliva.

The symptoms of this condition are the same with all other allergies. It involves extreme swelling, blistering, itching and in worse cases, asthma and anaphylactic shock. You can tell if you have skeeter syndrome when the bites seem to multiply from nowhere.

Final Thoughts

So that’s it. If you’d like to know more about the diseases that are caused by mosquitoes, check out our post here.

But for now, these are the most probable health conditions that a person could have when mosquito bites don’t heal. Some of them are life-threatening while some will disappear over time, without need for any intense treatment.

What we should always remember though is that the moment a bite lasts longer than a few hours, you should deal with it quickly. Visit your doctor. Letting a professional look at you that could be the difference between life and death.