Mosquito‑borne illnesses such as malaria and dengue are increasingly viewed as among the fastest‑rising threats to humanity, according to a major international survey of health professionals. The survey gathered responses from more than 3,700 researchers and practitioners across 151 countries, highlighting the escalating risk posed by vector‑borne diseases.
The study was conducted under the guidance of experts including Trudie Lang, senior author from the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Medicine, and Josie Golding, head of epidemics and epidemiology at the Wellcome Trust in the UK, which commissioned the research. These experts emphasised that mosquito‑borne diseases are now considered to be accelerating faster than other longstanding global health challenges, including tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.
The accelerating threat is attributed to multiple converging factors, including climate change, socioeconomic inequality, and rising antimicrobial resistance. Warming temperatures and changing rainfall patterns are expanding mosquito habitats, while limited healthcare access and declining treatment efficacy in vulnerable populations further exacerbate the problem.
The study warns that this growing crisis may not appear as a sudden outbreak, but rather as a “creeping catastrophe,” in which endemic mosquito‑borne diseases steadily expand into new regions and populations with fragile health systems. This slow‑building threat could have significant global health consequences if left unchecked.
The findings underline the need for urgent investment in mosquito‑control strategies, climate mitigation efforts, equitable access to healthcare, and antimicrobial stewardship, in order to prevent a widening global health crisis driven by vector‑borne diseases.
