At present, mosquito-borne diseases are an increasing public health challenge around the globe, threatening over 40% of the world's population. Take malaria as an example, despite the fact that major advances in malaria control have been carried out since 2000, recent progress has stalled. Moreover, the risk of arboviruses transmitted by Aedes mosquito is rapidly increasing, with the unprecedented spread of dengue virus and Chikungunya virus, the outbreak of yellow fever, and the Zika virus epidemic in Latin America in 2015.

To tackle this growing problem, diverse and innovative mosquito control technologies (such as gene drive systems, sterile insect technique and Wolbachia symbiosis) are currently under development. Further active areas of research on potential new tools for mosquito control include the development of targeted toxic sugar baits and the use of transgenic fungi as biocide, and they have both shown promising results in semi-field studies.

Currently, the epidemic of COVID-19 has brought new challenges to the control of mosquito-borne diseases. According to WHO’s latest World malaria report, there were about 14 million more cases in 2020 compared to 2019, and 69,000 more deaths. Approximately two-thirds of these additional deaths (47,000) were associated with disruptions in malaria prevention, diagnosis, and treatment provision during the pandemic. However, the situation could have been far worse. We urgently need some new approaches to control mosquito-borne diseases that are in line with the COVID-19 prevention and control strategies.

In this Research Topic, we would like to invite our colleagues to provide novel insights into the control of mosquito-borne diseases. We welcome submissions of Original Research, Reviews and Mini-Reviews encompassing epidemiological, translational, and basic research focusing on, but not limited to, the following aspects:

• Biological control of mosquito-borne diseases
• Gene drive for mosquito control
• The link between COVID-19 and mosquito-borne diseases.
• Household-level vector control tools
• Assessment of the risk of disease transmission applying mathematical models
• Novel therapeutics efficacy evaluation for mosquito-borne diseases
• New therapeutic targets for the development of vaccines and drugs against mosquito-borne diseases

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Frontiers in Public Health

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