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Joint approach needed to tackle vector-borne disease in South Pacific
Wednesday, 9 September 2009Anopheles Stephensi image (right)
Hugh Sturrock; Wellcome Images
http://snurl.com/anopheles
In a paper published in The New Zealand Medical Journal, Professor Weinstein and co-authors Jose G B Derraik (lead author), David Slaney and Edwin R Nye, encourage Australia, New Zealand and other South Pacific nations to join forces in the fight to eradicate the region’s vector-borne diseases, especially those carried by mosquitoes.
Diseases such as dengue fever, West Nile virus, Ross River virus and Chikungunya virus are of particular significance to the South Pacific. Global warming is likely to increase the danger of these diseases, particularly in more temperate areas which are expected to experience habitat changes and temperature fluctuations, which may encourage mosquito breeding.
It is estimated that an outbreak of Ross River virus in New Zealand would incur public health expenses of hundreds of millions of dollars.
The authors say that frequent travel and trade between South Pacific countries points to an increasing need to support a collaborative, integrated approach to monitoring changes in mosquito species distributions and the population dynamics that could constitute a threat to public health.
“It is also important to track habitat and climatic changes, and to detect the occurrence of vector-borne diseases with enhanced surveillance systems,” said Professor Weinstein.
“Such knowledge could then be used to inform intervention strategies and improve eradication and control programs.”
The paper says that the most important factor determining the potential scale of a vector-borne disease outbreak appears to be community awareness of, and involvement in, mosquito control.
They encourage the adoption of a South Pacific vector-borne surveillance system to warn countries of potential outbreaks, similar to WHO’s Global Influenza Program and the Global Alliance to Eradicate Lymphatic Filariasis.
The authors point out that the relative costs of these programs are small and that they are in line with developments in public health that urge higher income countries to invest in protecting the health of more vulnerable populations.
“We encourage that extended support be given to the Pacific Public Health Surveillance Network,” say the paper’s authors.
“This will require continued and extended collaboration and funding support between epidemiologists, medical entomologists, non-government organisations and public health departments in New Zealand, Australia and other South Pacific nations.”
They also urge New Zealand to boost its commitment to establish its own diagnostic reference centre, capable of carrying out necessary laboratory tests for detection and confirmation of arboviral infections in blood samples not only from NZ, but from countries in the broader region that are unlikely to be able to afford to make such an investment themselves.
You can read the full paper here (LINK TO PAPER
http://www.sph.uq.edu.au/news/newsletters/09/documents/Derraik_et_al_2009.pdf
ENDS
More information:
Professor Philip Weinstein
p.weinstein@sph.uq.edu
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