Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: The vector Aedes aegypti is now present in nearly every tropical and sub-tropical region in the world and poses a threat to health globally.The mosquito can transmit several viruses that cause diseases, such as dengue fever, chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika virus infection.Recent outbreaks of Ae. aegypti-borne diseases have shown that urban areas are particularly vulnerable to such outbreaks, because the built environment provides ideal conditions for mosquito proliferation and contact with humans.Unless the global public health community takes a coordinated, pre-emptive approach to controlling the Ae.aegypti population, these outbreaks will become more common and widespread as urban populations expand and movement of people and their goods increase.Improving the built environment would contribute to a long-term solution to reducing the threat of Aedes aegypti-borne diseases.Our ability to deal with Ae. aegypti-borne viral epidemics is limited.Apart from supportive care, specific treatments for vector-borne viral diseases are lacking.No commercial vaccines for Zika or chikungunya are available, the only licensed dengue vaccine is only partially protective 1 and globally the yellow fever vaccine is in short supply.2 Although current vector control programmes are often poorly resourced and under-used, 3 historically, vector control was the main method for controlling mosquito-borne diseases.By using container inspections, oiling of breeding sites and later perifocal spraying of DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) in water containers and nearby walls, Ae. aegypti, yellow fever and dengue fever were successfully eliminated from much of South America in the 1960s.4 In the 1970s and 1980s in Singapore and in the 1980s and 1990s in Cuba, controlling
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2624677806