Malaria Consortium webinar discusses the rising global threat of arboviruses

The latest Malaria Consortium webinar took place this week focusing on the rising global threat of mosquito-borne arboviruses.

The webinar, moderated by Malaria Consortium’s Senior Vector Control Specialist Dr Leo Braack, included a keynote presentation from WHO’s Dr Raman Velayudhan and perspectives from Asia, Africa and South America from Dr Bhupendra Nagpal (WHO), Dr Joel Lutomiah (KEMRI), Dr Haroldo Bezerra (PAHO) and Dr Ahmed Ayman (University of Khartoum).

The webinar provided an opportunity for leading experts in the field of arbovirology to come together to discuss the silent spread of the vectors responsible for arboviral diseases and the possible paths to progress against them. The Zika crisis, the 2019 dengue outbreaks in over 50 countries, and recent chikungunya surges have shown that arboviruses are flaring on multiple fronts and there is increasing endemicity in several countries. Despite these events, the threats remain largely ignored.

During the webinar, Dr Braack said: “Literally hundreds of millions of people are infected by just dengue alone each year, bringing suffering to mostly young children. The spread of arboviruses deserves better attention from the global health community, for the benefit of the poorer segments of society that are most exposed to the growing spread of these debilitating infections.”

Following the presentations, a short Q&A session was held with input from Malaria Consortium’s Senior Technical Adviser, Dr Prudence Hamade. Dr Hamade said: "We know that 130 countries are affected by these arbovirus diseases and they are increasing very rapidly across these countries. We need to focus on getting communities involved, if we don't, they won't be able to help in the control of the vectors spreading disease".

Watch the webinar in full below and learn more about dengue in our other video, Dengue: a silent issue and a growing problem.

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