Mosquito-Borne Viral Diseases: Control and Prevention in the Genomics Era

Abstract

Mosquito-borne viral diseases are infections transmitted by the bite of infected mosquitoes. The burden of these diseases is highest in tropical and subtropical areas and they disproportionately affect the poorest populations. Since 2014, major outbreaks of dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika have afflicted populations and overwhelmed health systems in many countries. Distribution of mosquito-borne diseases is determined by complex demographic, environmental and social factors, causing diseases to emerge in countries where they were previously unknown. Coupling genomic diagnostics and epidemiology to innovative digital disease detection platforms raises the possibility of an open, global, digital pathogen surveillance system. Considering pathogen surveillance in mind, real-time sequencing, bioinformatics tools and the combination of genomic and epidemiological data from viral infections can give essential information for understanding the past and the future of an epidemic, making possible to establish an effective surveillance framework on tracking the spread of infections to other geographic regions.