Editorial: Digital Tools and Innovation for the prevention and control of vector-borne diseases

Jorge Abelardo Falcón-Lezama ^1* Jorge Fernando Mendez-Galván ² Roberto Tapia-Conyer ³

• ¹ Carlos Slim Foundation, Mexico City, Mexico
• ² Federico Gómez Children's Hospital, Mexico City, México, Mexico
• ³ Faculty of Medicine, National Autonomous University of Mexico, México City, México, Mexico

As a contribution to this goal, here we present a collection of notable contributions to innovations in the prevention and control of vector-borne diseases. Focused mostly on the surveillance of diseases such as dengue, leishmaniasis, and malaria and their vectors, all five manuscripts in this collection share a common vision that surveillance must be improved to keep up with the current times, maintaining its usefulness as a main pillar of public health.Modern tools for vector-borne disease surveillance are paramount in any health system. On this matter, it is essential to have access to quality data and comprehensive platforms capable of integrating information from multiple sources to help decision-makers understand the complex dynamics of interaction between human and medically relevant vectors and implement the best informed and effective preventive and control measures.Two of the contributions in this collection explore improvements in surveillance systems. First, Ureña GE et al. propose an elegant solution with an overall surveillance system framework with a transdisciplinary vision that integrates sample management, vector surveillance, weather information, and georeferencing of cases for the prediction of possible outbreaks as a suitable option for low and middleincome countries. Second, Manouana GP et al. analyze significant information gaps and potential research interests to increase knowledge of the distribution of arboviral diseases and their vectors through African countries to improve the strategies to successfully prevent, monitor, and control the disease outbreak. Both manuscripts should be selected reads for any health professional seeking to understand the complexities of modern health systems when faced with such formidable challenges as diseases with epidemic potential.Providing quality information for surveillance systems is far from being an easy task. The effectiveness of any system strongly depends on the quality and consistency of the sources that nourish them, as much as their processing ability and timeliness in which they produce actionable data. While facing vector-borne diseases, maybe one of the most underrated tasks in surveillance is identifying and classifying species of medical relevance to know their geographical range and estimate vector-human interaction. A time-consuming and cumbersome activity that pays off by adding specificity to preventive and control measures and results in fewer environmental impacts and better results.Two contributions in our collection assess this essential activity. First, Tebo-Nzesseu TR et al. studied leishmaniasis-transmitting sand flies' spatial distribution and ecology. Their results underscore the importance of having updated vector profiles and environmental information datasets for identifying risks for the human population and alternative transmission cycles. Next, an innovative approach by Loh RK et al. demonstrates the feasibility of using mosquito bulk samples for analyzing DNA markers, which improves the accuracy in the surveillance of relevant mosquito vector species. This method could provide information not only from the vector species but also from their reservoirs and parasites, opening multiple possibilities for understanding host-reservoir interactions in a cluster approach instead of a linear perspective.In a final contribution focused on drug efficacy, Vieira Santos V et al. analyze the effect of artesunate-mefloquine combination therapy on survival in Plasmodium berghei-infected mice, using experimental statistical and modeling approaches. Their findings support the efficacy of the dual scheme versus monotherapy and propose the use of TTE analyses for malaria survival models as a tool for drug efficacy surveillance in a landscape where drug resistance is a latent threat to control efforts.In conclusion, the collection presented here highlights the need for prevention and control measures against vector-borne diseases to evolve in line with social, biological, and environmental changes. In the current scenario and considering the trends, there must be a more significant effort to improve the speed with which innovations are adopted and thus to be able to obtain better results than those we are obtaining today.