Mosquito-Associated Viruses and Their Related Mosquitoes in West Africa

Abstract

Mosquito-associated viruses (MAVs), including mosquito-specific viruses (MSVs) and mosquito-borne (arbo)viruses (MBVs), are an increasing public, veterinary, and global health concern, and West Africa is projected to be the next front for arboviral diseases. As in-depth knowledge of the ecologies of both western African MAVs and related mosquitoes is still limited, we review available and comprehensive data on their diversity, abundance, and distribution. Data on MAVs’ occurrence and related mosquitoes were extracted from peer-reviewed publications. Data on MSVs, and mosquito and vertebrate host ranges are sparse. However, more data are available on MBVs (i.e., dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya, Zika, and Rift Valley fever viruses), detected in wild and domestic animals, and humans, with infections more concentrated in urban areas and areas affected by strong anthropogenic changes. Aedes aegypti, Culex quinquefasciatus, and Aedes albopictus are incriminated as key arbovirus vectors. These findings outline MAV, related mosquitoes, key knowledge gaps, and future research areas. Additionally, these data highlight the need to increase our understanding of MAVs and their impact on host mosquito ecology, to improve our knowledge of arbovirus transmission, and to develop specific strategies and capacities for arboviral disease surveillance, diagnostic, prevention, control, and outbreak responses in West Africa.

Encephalitic Arboviruses of Africa: Emergence, Clinical Presentation and Neuropathogenesis

“…The etiologic agents of arboviral neuroinvasive diseases occur within three virologic genera: Flaviviridae , Togaviridae , and Bunyaviridae . The Phlebovirus RVFV ( Phenuiviridae family) has been recently and extensively reviewed ( 9 – 14 ). Categorization of these RNA viruses, their key attributes, types of neuroinvasive diseases they cause, in addition to geographic epidemiology, and pathophysiology for medically relevant Flaviviridae and Togaviridae family members are summarized below (see Table 1 ).…”

Arboviruses as an unappreciated cause of non-malarial acute febrile illness in the Dschang Health District of western Cameroon

“…[14] In SSA, DENV is endemic in at least 34 countries. There is currently no report of routine DENV diagnosis and treatment in health systems in Africa despite evidence of continuous, ongoing DENV transmission in East and West Africa, [1,15,16] and more recently in central Africa. [17][18][19] Consequently, febrile children and adults are managed as presumptive cases of malaria or bacterial infections, which limits the attention and awareness for infections caused by DENV or other viruses.…”

Semi-field evaluation of the space spray efficacy of Fludora Co-Max EW against wild insecticide-resistant Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus mosquito populations from Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

“…Arboviruses and their Aedes vectors are spreading rapidly worldwide from their African origin [3], due to accelerated urbanisation, international trade, mobility and climate change [4,5]. In Africa, arboviruses are threatening over 831 million people, which is 70% of the continental population [6][7][8], and Rift Valley fever infections have caused increased abortions, stillbirths and mortality among domestic animals with considerable economic losses [9]. Because there are no vaccines and no specific drugs against most of these arboviruses, prevention is mainly based on an effective surveillance and vector control [1].…”