I enjoyed a recent blog by Bill Gates on his blog at www.gatesnotes.com where he was describing the world’s deadliest animals.  The deadliest animal in the world was no surprise to me, because I am well aware of the dangers of malaria and the mosquito kills some 725,000 across the world every year.   Apart from humans the most dangerous animal is the snake which kills about 50,000 people a year around the world, including about 11,000 a year in India and the biggest number of deaths in South Africa from snake bites come from the bites of puff adders.  I have to say that I generally find them fairly scary creatures and I am not a big fan of snakes!  Dogs, via rabies also kill far more than crocodiles, hippopotamus or elephants with lions only killing approximately 100 people a year and less than 10 people die a year around the world from shark bites but every time there is a shark attack that of course turns into an international sensation.  In fact, 2,000 people a year die from tapeworm, so it is almost like the more you talk about an animal, the less dangerous it really is.  Mosquitoes also cause a loss of productivity, and apart from malaria, other diseases that they carry include dengu fever, encephalitis as well as yellow fever.