November 27, 2020
Bulletin interne de l'Institut Pasteur
Yellow fever: risk of virus transmission in the Asia-Pacific region
A study, the most comprehensive assessment of vector competence, shows that Aedes aegypti mosquitoes from the Asia-Pacific region are capable of transmitting yellow fever virus. This indicates that vector populations are seemingly not a brake to the emergence of yellow fever in the region.
Viral pathogens with high epidemic potential have been historically a major concern for human health. Large-scale epidemics like the 1918 influenza pandemic have left their marks, and the fear of new viral emergences has materialized today with the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Over the past decades, the world had to face new emergences of arboviruses, chikungunya in 2005-2006, Zika in 2013, affecting all continents and causing millions cases. Since vaccines are usually unavailable and most drugs are inefficient to treat arbovirus infections, disease control relies mainly on the fight against the mosquito vectors. Thus the specific knowledge of vector competence, informs on the potential role of a mosquito species in transmitting an arbovirus, helping then in assessing the risk of transmission and outbreaks.