Insects are known to display strategies that spread the risk of encountering unfavorable conditions, thereby decreasing the extinction probability of genetic lineages in unpredictable environments. To what extent these strategies influence the epidemiology and evolution of vector-borne diseases in stochastic environments is largely unknown. In triatomines, the vectors of the parasite Trypanosom...

In recent years, vector-borne parasitic and bacterial diseases have emerged or re-emerged in many geographical regions causing global health and economic problems that involve humans, livestock, companion animals and wild life. The ecology and epidemiology of vectorborne diseases are affected by the interrelations between three major factors comprising the pathogen, the host (human, animal or v...

A growing body of documents shows that rising average global temperatures can be one of several causes of disease emergence and reemergence among human and animal populations. In this regard, climate mostly affects diseases caused by pathogens that spend part of their lifecycle outside of the host, exposed to the environment like water-borne diseases, food-borne pathogens, and vector-borne zoon...

Vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue constitute a major obstacle to socio-economic development in much of the tropics and remain high on the list of priorities for the improvement of public health. Sadly, financial as well as logistical constraints prevent a rapid amelioration of this situation (Reducing risks, promoting healthy life 2002). Unlike other infectious diseases, vector-b...

Merging the field of epidemiology with those of evolutionary and behavioural ecology can generate considerable fundamental knowledge, as well as help to guide public health policies. An attempt is made here to integrate these disciplines by focusing on parasitic manipulation in vector-borne diseases. Parasitic manipulation is a fascinating strategy of transmission which occurs when a parasite a...

Infectious diseases increasingly play a role in the decline of wildlife populations. Vector-borne diseases, in particular, have been implicated in mass mortality events and localized population declines are threatening some species with extinction. Transmission patterns for vector-borne diseases are influenced by the spatial distribution of vectors and are therefore not uniform across the lands...

BACKGROUND The incidence, outbreak frequency, and distribution of many infectious diseases are generally expected to change as a consequence of climate change, yet there is limited regional information available to guide decision making. OBJECTIVE We surveyed government officials designated as Competent Bodies for Scientific Advice concerning infectious diseases to examine the degree to which...