A global brief on vector-borne diseases, 2014. World Health Organization.
Vector-borne diseases cause more than one million deaths each year. But death counts, though alarming, vastly underestimate the human misery and hardship caused by these diseases, as many people who survive infection are left permanently debilitated, disfigured, maimed, or blind.As vectors thrive under conditions where housing is poor, water is unsafe, and environments are contaminated with filth, these diseases exact their heaviest toll on the poor – the people left behind by development. Measures that control the vectors, the agents of disease, provide an excellent, but underutilized opportunity to help these people catch up.
