6/18/16, in process, KJS, DC

Need a Hook? Just look to the headlines for the epidemiological changes coming our way.

Zika, the virus from the highly adaptive Aedes Africanus a day biting mosquito which has quickly surfaced in 43 countries of the Western Hemisphere in less than one year. And now, with Zika’s link to Microcephaly (neurological birth defect) all but confirmed….

Chikungunya, an ancient debilitating virus now spreading to the Turkish mosquito while also on the rise in India. Chikungunya is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, which also transmit Dengue, yet another potentially deadly  disease and a risk to half the world’s total population.

The Aedes aegypti is the same breed that transits Yellow Fever, where we’ve just seen an outbreak in Angola due to insufficient vaccine supply and now an emergency in DRC, of all places.

All these emergent threats beg the question: what is the future of vector control?

Due to climate changes; fast-evolving vectors; half-done or ineffective prevention and treatment efforts, we’re still running from mosquitoes, which have killed far more human beings than any other animal throughout history.

To understand the future of these diseases perhaps we can learn by looking at the fight against malaria, a herculean global effort comparable in target, scope and scale, which has been a priority of world governments since 2000….