New tools needed to control the spread of mosquito-borne disease

Mosquito-borne diseases already kill more than one million people and infect up to 700 million each year. Rising global temperatures are causing an expansion in the areas in which mosquitoes thrive, putting communities at higher latitudes and altitudes at risk of outbreaks and making more months each year favourable to disease transmission in places already prone to mosquito-borne disease.

It’s a pandemic the World Health Organization is mobilising a global response to with its recently launched, Global Arbovirus Initiative. The initiative will focus resources on risk monitoring, pandemic prevention, preparedness, detection and response to mosquito-borne viral infections, including dengue, chikungunya, Zika and yellow fever.