Control of arthropod-borne infectious diseases: Extrapolating from the known to the unknown

Mosquito-transmitted infectious diseases have a significant impact on human health: malaria, dengue and yellow fever exact a huge toll of morbidity and mortality annually on a global scale. Lessons may be learnt from our experiences with these major parasite and viral pathogens in regard to understanding the diagnosis, treatment, control and prevention of (re)-emerging infectious diseases. This applies to aetiological agents such as Zika, which has caused a recent notable epidemic, but also less well characterized arthropod-borne viral infections, of which there are at least 70 identified in Australia alone, the putative cause of many cases of fevers of unknown origin. Given the apparently increasing rate of changes in climate, human movement and vector distribution, these neglected diseases should be researched further so that in the event of conditions becoming conducive to a sustained outbreak that poses a threat to public health suitable emergency control measures may be efficiently enforced.