Vectors

Vectors are living organisms that can transmit infectious pathogens between humans,
or from animals to humans. Many of these vectors are bloodsucking insects, which
ingest disease-producing microorganisms during a blood meal from an infected host
(human or animal) and later transmit it into a new host, after the pathogen has
replicated. Often, once a vector becomes infectious, they are capable of transmitting the
pathogen for the rest of their life during each subsequent bite/blood meal.

Vector-borne diseases

Vector-borne diseases are human illnesses caused by parasites, viruses and bacteria
that are transmitted by vectors. The burden of these diseases is highest in tropical and
subtropical areas, and they disproportionately affect the poorest populations.

Vector-borne infectious diseases, such as malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, and
plague, cause a significant fraction of the global infectious disease burden; indeed,
nearly half of the world’s population is infected with at least one type of vector-borne
pathogen. Vector-borne plant and animal diseases, including several newly recognized
pathogens, reduce agricultural productivity and disrupt ecosystems throughout the
world. These diseases profoundly restrict socioeconomic status and development in
countries with the highest rates of infection, many of which are located in the tropics and
subtropics.
By common usage, vectors are normally considered to be invertebrate animals, usually
arthropods, but they may also include fomites, which are defined as “[a]ny inanimate
object that may be contaminated with disease-causing microorganisms and thus serves
to transmit disease, or rodents, which carry the agent from a reservoir 2 to a susceptible
host. Vectors of human disease are typically species of mosquitoes and ticks that are
able to transmit viruses, bacteria, or parasites to humans and other warm-blooded
hosts.

List of vector-borne diseases, according to their vector

The following table is a non-exhaustive list of vector-borne disease, ordered according

to the vector by which it is transmitted. The list also illustrates the type of pathogen that
causes the disease in humans.
Vector Disease caused Type of
pathogen
Mosquito Aedes Chikungunya Virus
Dengue Virus
Lymphatic filariasis Parasite
Rift Valley fever Virus
Yellow Fever Virus
Zika Virus
Anophele Lymphatic filariasis Parasite
s Malaria Parasite
Culex Japanese encephalitis Virus
Lymphatic filariasis Parasite
West Nile fever Virus
Aquatic snails Schistosomiasis (bilharziasis) Parasite
Blackflies Onchocerciasis (river blindness) Parasite
Fleas Plague (transmitted from rats to humans) Bacteria
Tungiasis Ectoparasite
Lice Typhus Bacteria
Louse-borne relapsing fever Bacteria
Sandflies Leishmaniasis Parasite
Sandfly fever (phlebotomus fever) Virus
Ticks Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever Virus
Lyme disease Bacteria
Relapsing fever (borreliosis) Bacteria
Rickettsial diseases (eg: spotted fever Bacteria
and Q fever) Virus
Tick-borne encephalitis Bacteria
Tularaemia
Triatome bugs Chagas disease (American Parasite
trypanosomiasis)
Tsetse flies Sleeping sickness (African Parasite
trypanosomiasis)
Diseases Carried by Vectors

Climate is one of the factors that influence the distribution of diseases borne by vectors
(such as fleas, ticks, and mosquitoes, which spread pathogens that cause illness). The
geographic and seasonal distribution of vector populations, and the diseases they can
carry, depends not only on climate but also on land use, socioeconomic and cultural
factors, pest control, access to health care, and human responses to disease risk,
among other factors. Daily, seasonal, or year-to-year climate variability can sometimes
result in vector/pathogen adaptation and shifts or expansions in their geographic
ranges. Such shifts can alter disease incidence depending on vector-host interaction,
host immunity, and pathogen evolution.

Environmental Control Strategies of Some Vectors

S/NO Vector Control Strategy

Anopheles Mosquito Clearing of bush around houses Adequate and
proper environmental sanitation Proper disposal
of wastes Use of ITNs and gauze on openings in
buildings

House Fly Elimination of breeding places of flies Keeping

sources of water supply clean and safe Cover of
foods Wash raw foods and vegetables well
before eating

Draining of swamp marshy areas to remove

Snail (Bolinus sp.) aquatic vegetation Altering the rate of flow of the
stream Using concrete linings in drains of gutters

Aedes aegypti Mosquito Clearing the bush around houses

Cyclops Addition of chemical compounds in water to kill

Cyclops Provide pipe borne water

Simulium damnosum Clearing surrounding vegetation cover to

(Black Fly) destroy hiding places for the fly
Diseases Carried by Vectors

Climate is one of the factors that influence the distribution of diseases borne by vectors
(such as fleas, ticks, and mosquitoes, which spread pathogens that cause illness). The
geographic and seasonal distribution of vector populations, and the diseases they can
carry, depends not only on climate but also on land use, socioeconomic and cultural
factors, pest control, access to health care, and human responses to disease risk,
among other factors. Daily, seasonal, or year-to-year climate variability can sometimes
result in vector/pathogen adaptation and shifts or expansions in their geographic
ranges. Such shifts can alter disease incidence depending on vector-host interaction,
host immunity, and pathogen evolution.

Vector-borne diseases have the potential to cause enormous economic harm when they
affect livestock and crops, and even the threat of infection can severely limit trade. For
example, bluetongue, a viral disease transmitted among sheep and cattle by biting
midges, results in annual losses of approximately $3 billion due to morbidity and
mortality of animals, trade embargoes, and vaccination costs
Vector-borne plant diseases profoundly affect agricultural productivity and ecosystem
dynamics Vector-borne plant diseases also cause immeasurable damage to
ecosystems, which may not be recognized until it threatens human health, safety, or
prosperity.
These losses are likely to reduce shelter and food sources for wildlife, increase fire
frequency and intensity, and compromise water quality due to soil surface exposure.
Moreover, such ecological effects can be long-lasting.

Vector Control

WHO Secretariat provides strategic, normative and technical guidance to countries and
development partners for strengthening vector control as a fundamental approach
based on GVCR to preventing disease and responding to outbreaks.

A crucial element in reducing the burden of vector-borne diseases is behavioural

change. WHO works with partners to provide education and improve public awareness,
so that people know how to protect themselves and their communities from mosquitoes,
ticks, bugs, flies and other vectors.

Access to water and sanitation is a very important factor in disease control and
elimination. WHO works together with many different government sectors to improve
water storage, sanitation, thereby helping to control these diseases at the community
level.
The control of disease vector populations by habitat modification, a mainstay of early
20th century public health, was replaced by chemical methods when they became
relatively inexpensive and widely available. Pesticides remain the primary means to
prevent or mitigate most vector-borne diseases, but resistance has increasingly limited
the effectiveness of this strategy. Because insecticide resistance poses an especially
significant barrier to controlling malaria and dengue, and because vector control
measures could potentially reduce the incidence of additional vector-borne diseases,

VECTOR MANAGEMENT AND DELIVERY OF VECTOR CONTROL SERVICES

Preventing or reducing dengue virus transmission depends entirely on control of the
mosquito vectors or interruption of human–vector contact.
 advocacy social mobilization and legislation – the promotion of these principles in
development policies of all relevant agencies, organizations and civil society; the
establishment or strengthening of regulatory and legislative controls for public
health; and the empowerment of communities;
 collaboration within the health sector and with other sectors – the consideration
of all options for collaboration within and between public and private sectors;
planning and decision-making delegated to the lowest possible administrative
level; and strengthening communication among policy-makers, managers of
programmes for the control of vector-borne diseases, and other key partners;
 integrated approach to disease control – ensuring the rational use of available
resources through the application of a multi-disease control approach; integration
of non-chemical and chemical vector control methods; and integration with other
disease control measures;
 evidence-based decision-making – adaptation of strategies and interventions to
local vector ecology, epidemiology and resources, guided by operational
research and subject to routine monitoring and evaluation;
 capacity-building – the development of essential infrastructure, financial
resources and adequate human resources at national and local levels to manage
IVM programmes, based on a situation analysis.
Control of Ae. aegypti is mainly achieved by eliminating container habitats that are
favourable oviposition sites and which permit the development of the aquatic stages.
The habitats are eliminated by preventing access by mosquitoes to these containers or
by frequently emptying and cleaning them, by removing the developing stages using
insecticides or biological control agents, by killing the adult mosquitoes using
insecticides, or by combinations of these methods.
In selecting the most appropriate vector control method, or combination of methods,
consideration should be given to the local ecology and behaviour of the target species,
the resources available for implementation, the cultural context in which control
interventions are carried out, the feasibility of applying them in a timely manner, and the
adequacy of coverage. Methods of vector control include the elimination or
management of larval habitats, larviciding with insecticides, the use of biological agents
and the application of adulticides.