Arboviruses, vectors, poverty and climate change

This chapter focuses on the history and public health impact of the world's fve most signifcant arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) which cause dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever, Zika and Japanese encephalitis. These diseases occur in some high-income settings, but are only highly problematic in the global South. They thus have a bi-directional relationship to poverty (arboviruses can worsen poverty; poverty makes arboviruses harder to control). Also discussed are factors that link the distribution and severity of arboviral infections to environmental change, especially to the climate. Of these fve arboviruses, two have proven vaccines, yet logistic factors associated with rapidly scaling up the supply and distribution for one (yellow fever), in times and places of need, means that it remains a major threat. Prospects towards and obstacles slowing the development of an effcient dengue fever vaccine are described. Also discussed are potentially important changes in arbovirus distribution, latitude, altitude and reservoir species.