Emerging and re-emerging vector-borne diseases are among the prime public health concerns across the world. These diseases are not directly transmissible among humans, but they spread when optimal conditions are formed for the interaction of vectors, animal hosts, climate conditions, pathogens, and susceptible human populations. They are caused by parasites, viruses, and bacteria transmitted to humans by mosquitoes, sandflies, triatomine bugs, blackflies, ticks, tsetse flies, mites, snails, and lice. Major vector-borne diseases of humans include malaria, dengue, lymphatic filariasis, Chagas disease, onchocerciasis, leishmaniasis, chikungunya, Zika virus, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis, and schistosomiasis. They account for more than 17% of all infectious diseases, causing more than 700 000 deaths annually. Moreover, their impact requires a significant toll on economies and restricts both rural and urban development. The burden of these diseases is highest in tropical and subtropical areas, and they disproportionately affect the poorest populations.
Vectors and hosts involved in the transmission of these infective pathogens are sensitive to climate change and other environmental factors. Together, they affect vector-borne diseases influencing different natural aspects, such as vector and host survival, reproduction, development, activity, distribution, and abundance; pathogen development, replication, maintenance, and transmission; a geographic range of pathogens, vectors, and hosts; human behavior; and disease outbreak frequency, onset, and distribution. The route of transmission is identifiable, but the distribution within an endemic area is most often uneven. Malnourished people and those with weakened immunity are especially susceptible to vector-borne diseases.
Emerging research over the last decade suggests that vector-borne pathogens may cause chronic illnesses that are difficult to diagnose and manage effectively. It has been demonstrated for example that protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania are able to undergo genetic exchange during their growth. Therefore, hybrid strains may affect the clinical course and increase the range of transmissible sand fly species if they have the potential to be transmitted by both vector species of parental parasites. On the other hand, it has been shown also that the African malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae is undergoing speciation, which is the main process promoting biological diversity, thus, new vector species might complicate disease transmission.
This Research Topic exhibits all aspects of recent progress to well understand the drivers of these diseases (re-)emergence, anticipate further success based on a multidisciplinary and evidence-based method, open debates on actual challenges and limitations, and highlight future opportunities and new approaches. We invite all animal control officers, diagnosticians, economists, epidemiologists, historians, modelers, physicians, policy makers, veterinarians, microbiologists, wildlife biologists, and others, interested in this topic, to communicate their latest research findings.
We welcome the submission of original research, review, and mini-review focusing on, but not limited to, the following aspects:
• Vector biology and ecology
• Pathogens transmission cycles
• Epidemiology of vector-borne diseases
• Host-pathogens interactions
• Impact of climate change and environmental circumstances on these diseases
• Improvement of laboratory diagnostic capacities for these diseases
• Global strategies for the prevention and control of these diseases
• Socio-economic impact of these diseases
Emerging and re-emerging vector-borne diseases are among the prime public health concerns across the world. These diseases are not directly transmissible among humans, but they spread when optimal conditions are formed for the interaction of vectors, animal hosts, climate conditions, pathogens, and susceptible human populations. They are caused by parasites, viruses, and bacteria transmitted to humans by mosquitoes, sandflies, triatomine bugs, blackflies, ticks, tsetse flies, mites, snails, and lice. Major vector-borne diseases of humans include malaria, dengue, lymphatic filariasis, Chagas disease, onchocerciasis, leishmaniasis, chikungunya, Zika virus, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis, and schistosomiasis. They account for more than 17% of all infectious diseases, causing more than 700 000 deaths annually. Moreover, their impact requires a significant toll on economies and restricts both rural and urban development. The burden of these diseases is highest in tropical and subtropical areas, and they disproportionately affect the poorest populations.
Vectors and hosts involved in the transmission of these infective pathogens are sensitive to climate change and other environmental factors. Together, they affect vector-borne diseases influencing different natural aspects, such as vector and host survival, reproduction, development, activity, distribution, and abundance; pathogen development, replication, maintenance, and transmission; a geographic range of pathogens, vectors, and hosts; human behavior; and disease outbreak frequency, onset, and distribution. The route of transmission is identifiable, but the distribution within an endemic area is most often uneven. Malnourished people and those with weakened immunity are especially susceptible to vector-borne diseases.
Emerging research over the last decade suggests that vector-borne pathogens may cause chronic illnesses that are difficult to diagnose and manage effectively. It has been demonstrated for example that protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania are able to undergo genetic exchange during their growth. Therefore, hybrid strains may affect the clinical course and increase the range of transmissible sand fly species if they have the potential to be transmitted by both vector species of parental parasites. On the other hand, it has been shown also that the African malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae is undergoing speciation, which is the main process promoting biological diversity, thus, new vector species might complicate disease transmission.
This Research Topic exhibits all aspects of recent progress to well understand the drivers of these diseases (re-)emergence, anticipate further success based on a multidisciplinary and evidence-based method, open debates on actual challenges and limitations, and highlight future opportunities and new approaches. We invite all animal control officers, diagnosticians, economists, epidemiologists, historians, modelers, physicians, policy makers, veterinarians, microbiologists, wildlife biologists, and others, interested in this topic, to communicate their latest research findings.
We welcome the submission of original research, review, and mini-review focusing on, but not limited to, the following aspects:
• Vector biology and ecology
• Pathogens transmission cycles
• Epidemiology of vector-borne diseases
• Host-pathogens interactions
• Impact of climate change and environmental circumstances on these diseases
• Improvement of laboratory diagnostic capacities for these diseases
• Global strategies for the prevention and control of these diseases
• Socio-economic impact of these diseases
