Vector-Borne Diseases in a COVID-19 Redesigned World

Dear Colleagues,

More than simply supplanting any other health topic on the list of public health concerns, SARS-CoV-2 has been completely redesigning the present and future of Vector-Borne Diseases (VBD).

By modifying people’s everyday habits and behavior, and by restricting mobility worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted VBD transmission dynamics (leading to higher incidences of household dissemination during lockdown, i.e., lowering the perimeter of VBD dissemination, while also lowering the risk of introduction in nonendemic geographically isolated areas). The current period might be particularly informative regarding both local and external drivers of VBD transmission maintenance and extinction in a given area and context. 

By deprioritizing VBD surveillance, vector control, and VBD community action, the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed VBD issues back several years, erasing decades of effort to raise the status of VBD (other than Dengue and Malaria). Beyond the highly publicized use of chloroquine-derived medication to treat COVID-19 and the unexpected limited access to treatment for malaria patients, the pandemic may also have deeply impacted data collection and VBD epidemic surveillance. Depending on the area or country, different VBD and different levels of impact have been described, together with the actions implemented to correct the lack of data and resources.

The COVID-19 situation may provide new insights into VBD prevention, surveillance, and diagnostics, as well as a higher acceptability of innovative solutions, such as RNA vaccines, Point-Of-Care molecular methods to detect RNA viruses, mobile-based tracing of infected cases, biological surveillance of travelers, to name a few. Such innovative strategies implemented with the hope of quickly winning the battle against COVID-19 might become durable solutions to prevent and manage VBD outbreaks; however, such innovative solutions are often expensive and impractical, thus increasing the gap between high- and low-income countries. For this reason, low-cost strategies for VBD surveillance and vector-control in low-resources settings are of great importance.

Dr. Van-Mai Cao-Lormeau
Guest Editor

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• vector-borne diseases
• arboviruses
• Covid-19
• SARS-CoV-2
• surveillance
• epidemiology
• innovative solutions