Chapters authored
Aedes: What Do We Know about Them and What Can They Transmit?
Mosquitoes thrive mostly in the tropics and act as the vectors of some of the most debilitating human diseases caused by bioagents. Among the plethora of mosquitoes, Aedes transmit arboviruses, which have caused large-scale outbreaks throughout the world. Stegomyia is the most important subgenus of Aedes, which includes Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus vectors that are widespread and transmit a wide variety of arbovirus belonging to Togaviridae with the genus Alphavirus (Sindbis virus, equine encephalitis viruses, chikungunya virus), Flaviviridae with the genus Flavivirus (yellow fever virus, dengue 1–4 viruses, West Nile virus, Japanese and St. Louis encephalitis/SLE-viruses) and the Bunyaviridae with the genera Bunyavirus (California Group), and Phlebovirus (Rift Valley fever). In India, dengue and chikungunya are the most important arboviral diseases transmitted by Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus in recent time. Chikungunya and dengue are acute debilitating arthritogenic and hemorrhagic (dengue) disease, caused by enveloped single-stranded RNA virus belonging to Alphavirus and Flavivirus, respectively. In this chapter, we will comprehensively delineate the taxonomy of Aedes mosquitoes, their geographical distribution, evolutionary biology of chikungunya and dengue viruses, mechanism of transmission, and proposed vector control strategies against Aedes mosquitoes.
Part of the book: Vectors and Vector-Borne Zoonotic Diseases