Journal Article

The effect of global change on mosquito-borne disease

Abubakar, Ibrahim, Jones, Kate E, Franklinos, Lydia H V, Redding, David W

2019

Overview

More than 80% of the global population is at risk of a vector-borne disease, with mosquito-borne diseases being the largest contributor to human vector-borne disease burden. Although many global processes, such as land-use and socioeconomic change, are thought to affect mosquito-borne disease dynamics, research to date has strongly focused on the role of climate change. Here, we show, through a review of contemporary modelling studies, that no consensus on how future changes in climatic conditions will impact mosquito-borne diseases exists, possibly due to interacting effects of other global change processes, which are often excluded from analyses. We conclude that research should not focus solely on the role of climate change but instead consider growing evidence for additional factors that modulate disease risk. Furthermore, future research should adopt new technologies, including developments in remote sensing and system dynamics modelling techniques, to enable a better understanding and mitigation of mosquito-borne diseases in a changing world.

• Publisher: Elsevier Ltd,Elsevier Limited
• Subject: Agriculture / Aquatic insects / Built Environment / Climate Change / Climate models / Climatic conditions / Computer Simulation / Conservation of Natural Resources / Councils / Dengue - epidemiology / Disease / Epidemiology / Fever / Global Health / Health risks / Humans / Humidity / Infectious diseases / Land use / Literature reviews / Malaria - epidemiology / Medical research / Mosquito Vectors / Mosquitoes / New technology / Pathogens / Precipitation / Remote sensing / Socioeconomic Factors / System dynamics / Tropical diseases / Urbanization / Vector Borne Diseases - epidemiology / Vector-borne diseases / Vectors (Biology) / Zika virus