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Vector-borne diseases under climate change conditions in Africa

Guest edited by Pietro Ceccato, Mary H. Hayden, Ángel G. Muñoz and Mario-Henry Rodríguez

An article collection in Infectious Diseases of Poverty.

Vector-borne diseasesDiseases transmitted to humans by vectors (mosquitoes, flies, snails, etc) remain significant public health problems especially in Africa.  More than half of the world’s population are at risk of vector-borne diseases (VBDs). Through the years, great strides have been achieved in combating VBDs, most notably through large scale and coordinated control programs, which have contributed to the decline of the global mortality attributed to VBDs. However, the health- and socio-economic impacts of VBDs, especially among vulnerable populations, already facing the challenges of extensive poverty, fragile ecosystems, high population growth and non-existent, sub-optimal or failing health and social security systems, continue to be of grave concern. The geographic distribution of VBDs is influenced by a complex dynamic of environmental and social factors and their changing impact on the transmission and burden of VBDs through effects on their vectors, intermediate hosts and reservoirs. Current changes in the long term trends of regional weather patterns, referred to as ‘climate change’, are adding new pressures to VBDs. The impacts are anticipated to be significant, in terms of VBDs-related hazards, vulnerabilities and exposure.

This thematic series features several review articles on the subject as well as a sampling of the research outputs from the TDR-IDRC research initiative on VBDs and Climate Change which focuses on VBDs in the broader development context of human vulnerability to climate change. The overall goal of this research initiative was to support research groups in Africa to undertake research that can improve the understanding of climate change impact on population health vulnerabilities to VBDs and develop tools and strategies to increase resilience to climate change conditions in Africa.

  1. Effective communication of research findings on vector-borne diseases in Africa is challenging for a number of reasons. Following the experiences of a number of researchers over the life of a project, this art...

    Authors: Thomas Scalway, Mariam Otmani del Barrio and Bernadette Ramirez
    Citation: Infectious Diseases of Poverty 2019 8:101
  2. The climate variables that directly influence vector-borne diseases’ ecosystems are mainly temperature and rainfall. This is not only because the vectors bionomics are strongly dependent upon these variables, ...

    Authors: Florence Fouque and John C. Reeder
    Citation: Infectious Diseases of Poverty 2019 8:51
  3. Drylands, which are among the biosphere’s most naturally limiting and environmentally variable ecosystems, constitute three-quarters of the African continent. As a result, environmental sustainability and huma...

    Authors: Bruce A. Wilcox, Pierre Echaubard, Michel de Garine-Wichatitsky and Bernadette Ramirez
    Citation: Infectious Diseases of Poverty 2019 8:36
  4. During the last 30 years, the development of geographical information systems and satellites for Earth observation has made important progress in the monitoring of the weather, climate, environmental and anthr...

    Authors: Pietro Ceccato, Bernadette Ramirez, Tawanda Manyangadze, Paul Gwakisa and Madeleine C. Thomson
    Citation: Infectious Diseases of Poverty 2018 7:126
  5. The control of vector-borne diseases (VBD) is one of the greatest challenges on the global health agenda. Rapid and uncontrolled urbanization has heightened the interest in addressing these challenges through ...

    Authors: Jorge Marcos-Marcos, Antonio Olry de Labry-Lima, Silvia Toro-Cardenas, Marina Lacasaña, Stéphanie Degroote, Valéry Ridde and Clara Bermudez-Tamayo
    Citation: Infectious Diseases of Poverty 2018 7:83
  6. Climate-based disease forecasting has been proposed as a potential tool in climate change adaptation for the health sector. Here we explore the relevance of climate data, drivers and predictions for vector-bor...

    Authors: Madeleine C. Thomson, Ángel G. Muñoz, Remi Cousin and Joy Shumake-Guillemot
    Citation: Infectious Diseases of Poverty 2018 7:81
  7. Among parasitic infections, schistosomiasis ranks second after malaria in terms of worldwide morbidity. Despite efforts to contain transmission, more than 230 million people are infected, of which 85% live in ...

    Authors: Amoin Jeanne d’Arc Koffi, Mohamed Doumbia, Gilbert Fokou, Moussa Keita, Brama Koné and N’doumy Noel Abé
    Citation: Infectious Diseases of Poverty 2018 7:70

    The Correction to this article has been published in Infectious Diseases of Poverty 2018 7:93

  8. Schistosomiasis is a water-based disease transmitted by trematodes belonging to the genus Schistosoma. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between the prevalence of schistosomiasis and access to ...

    Authors: Richard K. M’Bra, Brama Kone, Yapi G. Yapi, Kigbafori D. Silué, Ibrahima Sy, Danielle Vienneau, Nagnin Soro, Guéladio Cissé and Jürg Utzinger
    Citation: Infectious Diseases of Poverty 2018 7:47
  9. Diseases transmitted to humans by vectors account for 17% of all infectious diseases and remain significant public health problems. Through the years, great strides have been taken towards combatting vector-bo...

    Authors: Bernadette Ramirez
    Citation: Infectious Diseases of Poverty 2017 6:164
  10. The threat of a rapidly changing planet – of coupled social, environmental and climatic change – pose new conceptual and practical challenges in responding to vector-borne diseases. These include non-linear an...

    Authors: Kevin Louis Bardosh, Sadie J. Ryan, Kris Ebi, Susan Welburn and Burton Singer
    Citation: Infectious Diseases of Poverty 2017 6:166

    The Correction to this article has been published in Infectious Diseases of Poverty 2018 7:5