Social Sustainability

Vector-Borne Disease

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Definition

Vector-borne diseases are illnesses whose pathogens are transmitted between hosts by vectors — chiefly mosquitoes (malaria, dengue, Zika, chikungunya, West Nile), ticks (Lyme disease), sandflies (leishmaniasis) and others. They kill hundreds of thousands annually (malaria alone around 600,000, mostly African children) and are among the most climate-sensitive of all disease categories: temperature and rainfall govern vector survival, biting rates and pathogen incubation, so warming shifts transmission into new altitudes and latitudes — dengue's recent expansion into Europe and highland Africa being the emblem.

References

www.ipcc.chBulk import source

This reference provides supporting context for how “Vector-Borne Disease” is defined and used.

www.who.intBulk import source

Source imported for editorial provenance.

Overview

How it is used

The category structures climate-health adaptation planning, WHO technical programmes, travel medicine, and early warning systems linking climate data to outbreak risk.

Why it matters

Vector-borne diseases are the sharpest edge of the climate-health nexus — the crisis arriving one mosquito at a time.