Vector-borne diseases are a major threat to public health throughout the world. They
include major human diseases such as malaria, trypanosomiasis and dengue, and others
that principally affect animal populations such as theileriosis and West Nile fever. The
study of vector-borne diseases has gone through a period when there was little impetus
for research. However, through programmes such as the ‘Great Neglected Diseases
Network’ and the Tropical Diseases Research Programme of WHO in the 1980s
scientific attention was redirected to vector-borne diseases. More recently initiatives
such as the ‘Roll Back Malaria’ programme have moved the subject on further