An Introduction to Vector-Borne Diseases

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Pathogens transmitted among animals, humans and plants by hematophagous arthropod vectors have been responsible for significant morbidity and mortality throughout human history. Together, Vector-Borne Diseases (VBDs) have accounted for more human disease and death during the last three centuries than all other causes combined. Currently, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that one-sixth of the illness and disability suffered worldwide can be attributed to VBDs, with more than half of the world’s population at risk. Every year, more than one billion people become infected and more than one million people die from VBDs, including African trypanosomiasis, American trypanosomiasis, dengue, leishmaniasis, malaria and schistosomiasis. In addition, many VBDs, such as lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis, are able to cause significant illness and suffering, contributing to a much larger overall burden of disease that can be traduced in Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs).

VBDs are defined as infectious diseases of animals and humans caused by pathogenic agents such as bacteria, helminthes, protozoa and viruses transmitted by hematophagous arthropod vectors, which include bedbugs, biting midges, black flies, fleas, kissing bugs, lices, mites, mosquitoes, sand flies and ticks, among others. From the hematophagous arthropod vectors, mosquitoes are the leading vector for human infectious agents, meanwhile ticks are the leading vector for the vast majority of zoonosis worldwide. Furthermore, ticks are the vectors responsible of transmitting the greatest variety of infectious agents to animals and humans.

BVDs are most frequently found in tropical and subtropical climates of many developing countries and therefore several of them are listed at the WHO’s list of 18 Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). NTDs can be characterized because they have subsisted in the poorest and most marginalized societies, where the lack of adequate sanitation, and close contact with infectious vectors and reservoirs prevail. However, several newly identified pathogens and vectors have triggered disease outbreaks all around the world, and previously controlled VBDs have re-emerged in new geographic areas.