Tropical & Vector-borne Diseases

Vectors are organisms capable of transmitting infectious pathogens between people or from animals to people. Many vectors are blood-sucking insects that ingest disease-producing microorganisms while sucking blood from an infected host (human or animal) and then transmit the pathogen to a new host after it replicates. Often, once a vector becomes contagious, it is able to spread the pathogen with each subsequent bite/blood meal.

Vector Borne Diseases

Vector-borne diseases are human illnesses caused by vector-borne parasites, viruses, and bacteria. Diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, schistosomiasis, human African trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis and onchocerciasis kill hundreds of thousands of people every year.