The looming peril of neglected indigenous arbovirus infections to population expansion in Northern Australia

Layman's summary of research: Viruses that are transmitted between vertebrate hosts by biting, blood-feeding arthropods (principally mosquitoes and ticks but also sandflies and midges) are called arthropod-borne viruses or, for short, arboviruses. The transmission of arboviruses to humans poses a significant and increasing global public health risk. The International Catalogue of Arboviruses currently lists 537 registered viruses, approximately 135 of which have been shown to cause disease in humans. Notable examples are dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis, West Nile and Zika viruses. In recent decades the emergence and re-emergence of the causative agents of these and other arboviral diseases has been greatly exacerbated by a combination of global demographic and societal changes, principally increasing rates and levels of urbanization, globalization and international mobility. These human factors have provided the mechanisms for such viruses to break out of their natural ecological zones to become established in novel geographical sites where susceptible arthropod vectors and human hosts provide conditions supportive to their causing epidemics.