Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Public Health Service, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Fort Collins, Colorado 80522, USA
Address for correspondence: Duane J. Gubler, Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Public Health Service, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, P.O. Box 2087, Fort Collins, CO 80522. Voice: 970-221-6428: fax: 970-221-6476.
DGubler{at}cdc.gov
Viral diseases transmitted by blood-feeding arthropods (arboviral
diseases) are among the most important of the emerging infectious
disease public health problems facing the world at the beginning
of the third millennium. There are over 534 viruses listed in
the arbovirus catalogue, approximately 134 of which have been
shown to cause disease in humans. These are transmitted principally
by mosquitoes and ticks. In the last two decades of the twentieth
century, a few new arboviral diseases have been recognized.
More important, however, is the dramatic resurgence and geographic
spread of a number of old diseases that were once effectively
controlled. Global demographic and societal changes, and modern
transportation have provided the mechanisms for the viruses
to break out of their natural ecology and become established
in new geographic locations where susceptible arthropod vectors
and hosts provide permissive conditions for them to cause major
epidemics. West Nile virus is just the the latest example of
this type of invasion by exotic viruses. This paper will provide
an overview of the medically important arboviruses and discuss
several in more detail as case studies to illustrate our tenuous
position as we begin the twenty-first century.
