Surveillance and Control Strategies to Fight Mosquito-Borne Diseases

Dear Colleagues,

Arboviruses (arthropod-borne viruses) represent a continuous menace for human health, and global change is supporting their emergence in new areas and re-emergence even where they seemed under control. A major role in recent outbreaks of arboviral diseases is certainly played by mosquitoes, mainly due to their capacity to rapidly acquire resistance against several insecticides and to their remarkable dispersal ability and adaptability to perturbed and urbanized lands. The recent outbreaks of important diseases like dengue, Zika, chikungunya, yellow fever, West Nile fever, and Rift Valley fever are a clear demonstration of the urgency of renewed efforts to fight this burden. Additionally, key vector mosquitoes like Aedes albopictus and Ae. aegypti are spreading across temperate climate areas and are supporting several documented cases of autochthonous transmission of viral diseases that were once only restricted to the tropics. Facing this threat necessitates a reinforcement of the surveillance system and innovations in the sector of control strategies together with a coordinated action by all the actors involved in disease prevention and control, including governments, public and private organizations, and local communities.

In this regard, a Global Vector Control Response (GVCR) 2017–2030 and a Global Arbovirus Initiative (GLAI) have been launched by the WHO to outline the key priority actions to strengthen vector control worldwide through increased capacity, improved surveillance, better coordination, and integrated action across sectors and diseases, as well as taking into account criteria of sustainability.

Research has the role of contributing to this effort by providing the data that are necessary for evidence-informed decision making.

In this context, this Special Issue aims to collect a series of original research articles or reviews related to three specific topics:

1. Mosquito surveillance (ecology, biodiversity, transmission, and resistance)
2. Emerging mosquito-borne diseases
3. Control strategies (with particular attention paid to highly specific and environmentally safe bio-control strategies such as sterile male-based suppression, larval control through insect growth regulators (IGRs) and Bti, bacteria to reduce the vector competence of key mosquito vectors, use of aquatic predators, etc.)

Dr. Riccardo Moretti
Dr. Marta Giovanetti
Guest Editors

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• arboviral diseases
• mosquitoes
• surveillance
• control