Vectors, Pathogens and Diseases: Current Trends and Emerging Challenges

Keystone Symposia, Silverthorne CO

Investigators

Abstract

ABSTRACT Support is requested for a Keystone Symposia conference entitled Vectors, Pathogens and Diseases: Current Trends and Emerging Challenges, organized by Drs. Maureen Coetzee, Josiane Etang, Stephen Torr, and Scott L. O'Neill. The conference will be held in Durban, South Africa from September 10-14, 2017. The elimination or eradication of several vector-borne diseases is high on the agenda of the World Health Organization, including malaria, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis and trypanosomiasis. Sustainable vector control is currently the only mass prevention strategy. Success, however, is hampered by many challenges posed by both the vectors and the pathogens. These challenges include insecticide resistance in mosquitoes and drug resistance in parasites with little on the immediate horizon to alleviate these problems. Insecticide and drug resistance are two parallel phenomena in vectors and parasites. While combination drugs have been developed to overcome parasite resistance to monotherapies, only four classes of insecticides are available for vector control. The unexpected emergence of arboviruses such as Zika in Brazil and south-east Asia, yellow fever in southern Africa, Dengue and Chikungunya, etc. pose their own unique challenges. The key goals of this conference are to review the latest scientific knowledge on vectors and pathogens that are responsible for emerging or re-emerging diseases, to highlight the problems facing various parts of the world, to address innovative methods for the control or elimination of vector-borne diseases and to enhance awareness of the landscape of vector-borne diseases and related new scientific knowledge aiming at improving the health of vulnerable human populations. In addition, the difficulties in ?going the final mile? to achieve elimination, in terms of surveillance, capacity and funding, will be addressed. The conference also aims to break down the ?insect silos? in which the vector-borne disease research community too commonly operates, providing a forum for researchers to interact, create networks and partnerships, exchange ideas, and think creatively across disciplines.