Climate change and vector-borne diseases

Diseases transmitted by insect vectors have a major impact on human and animal health, as well as on the economy of societies. Because of their modes of transmission, these vector-borne diseases-zoonotic or not-are particularly sensitive to climate change. The climate and its variations determine, sometimes substantially, the presence of vectors at a given place, as well as their density and capacity to transmit diseases. The climate also has an influence on the presence and density of animals and humans, in addition to the survival capacities of pathogens in a given environment. All of the components, conditions and processes necessary for the transmission of these diseases form a complex dynamic system whose behaviour, under the influence of the climate and other environmental variables, will determine whether or not transmission will occur. Experimental and epidemiological studies are carried out in laboratory and field conditions to gain greater insight into the underlying biological processes and measure the impact of climate parameters on these processes. Mathematical modelling is used to represent these systems and simulate their behaviour under different environmental conditions. This major tool sheds light on the biological phenomena involved in the transmission of given pathogens, while also simulating, over a more or less long time scale, spatiotemporal variations in the intensity of this transmission so as to be able to tailor control strategies against these diseases. (Résumé d'auteur