An increasingly interconnected world with burgeoning tourism, travel, and trade has brought with it not just a prodigious daily shunt of people and cargo across the planet, but also the potential for pathogen and vector stow-away to colonize new grounds. Behold Covid-19, only the most recent example, but by far not the only offender in the witness box. Multiple mosquito-borne arboviruses have escaped their ancestral homes to entrench themselves with tragic effect in many countries across the globe. Think Zika, Chikungunya, dengue, yellow fever, West-Nile virus, and others. This is the tip of the iceberg…a Pandora’s Box of silent and stealthy viruses lurk in primate and bird hosts in the jungles of Africa and other continents, waiting for Perfect Storm conditions to become the next scourge.

Malaria Consortium have assembled a panel of top specialists to inform us of the nature, scale and epidemiological trends of some of these viruses, and what the state of preparedness of our world is to confront these steadily expanding threats. No longer Future Threats, they are already among us, attacking our friends, families, and children. We received amazing turnout of 242 participants from all over the world, Europe, Eastern Africa, and South Asia countries. 

Key takeaways from the webinar

• Difficulty in estimating the burden of arbovirus diseases across the globe is the commonest challenges which is compounded by lack of integrated diseases surveillance tracking the disease occurrence, so more effective advocacy can be done for increased funding.
• Better inter-sectoral and inter-ministerial collaborations are needed not just within and across different department of Ministries of Health
• Community engagement must be a priority in controlling arboviral infection.
• Appropriate tools are urgently needed to deal with the vectors.
• Diagnosis of the diseases are difficult at the clinical as symptoms of the diseases are non-specific. Multiplex diagnosis tools (e.g., one under development by Imperial College London and Malaria Consortium) will be potential solutions. These tools will be able to differentiate between bacterial and viral and making a step closer to the differential diagnosis and subsequently confirmatory for which virus is causative.
• Lack of funding remains biggest challenges compounded by lack of robust burden (health and economic) of vector-borne diseases. Data-supported advocacy are needed to increase the funding and stop neglecting the VBDs. 
• The lack of entomologists and career pathways for entomologists. Missed opportunity e.g. 97% of entomologists in Africa are involved in malaria less emphasis on other vector-borne diseases.
• Climate change: increased urbanization, poverty, lack of access to clean water hence storage of water will become multiplier for arboviral infections.

On priority vector control issues that need research attention

On priority vector control issues that need research attention, there is a high research interest in cost-effectiveness Aedes control tool. This highlights the importance of economic evaluation of new tools that are being introduced.

Tools and references shared during webinar

1. A Toolkit for national dengue burden estimation, WHO
2. Global vector control response 2017–2030, WHO
3. New road map for neglected tropical diseases 2021−2030, WHO
4. Strategy for Arboviral Disease Prevention and Control, PAHO
5. Handbook for Integrated Vector Management in the Americas, PAHO
6. Addressing the environmental determinants of health in vector surveillance and control strategies: promoting key interventions, PAHO
7. Technical document for the implementation of interventions based on generic operational scenarios for Aedes aegypti control, PAHO
8. Manual para aplicar rociado residual intradomiciliario en zonas urbanas para el control de Aedes aegypti, PAHO
9. Evaluation of Innovative Strategies for Aedes aegypti Control: Challenges for their Introduction and Impact Assessment, PAHO
10. Dengue prevention and control during COVID-19 pandemic, PAHO
11. Control of Aedes aegypti in the scenario of simultaneous transmission of COVID-19, PAHO

The recording of the webinar is available at Malaria Consortium’s website.