Author(s): Poinsignon, Anne ; Fournet, Florence ; Ngowo, Halfan S. ; Franco Martins Barreira, Victoria ; Pinto, João ; Bartumeus, Frederic ; Kaindoa, Emmanuel W. ; Corbel, Vincent
Date: 2025
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/185849
Origin: Repositório Institucional da UNL
Subject(s): Aedes spp; Anopheles stephensi; Arbovirus; Citizen science; Innovative tools; Vector control and surveillance; Parasitology; veterinary(all); Infectious Diseases; SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
Funding Information: The meeting was funded through grants from the WHO Research & Training Programme on Tropical Diseases [TDR], the European Union under Grant No. 101086257 (INOVEC Project) and the ANRS-MIE (AAP 2024-2, COLLOQUE ECTZ29604). Additional support was provided by the Ifakara Health Institute (IHI), the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA), the French Embassy in Tanzania, Innovation to Impact (I2I), the Worldwide Insecticide Resistance Network (WIN), and MediLabSecure network. Sponsorship for the meeting was provided by Envu, Biogents, Clarke, Vestergaard, V.K.A Polymers, SC Johnson and Yorkool. The funders played no role in study design, data collection or analysis, or the decision to publish. Funding Information: Rosemary Lees (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine [LSTM], UK) opened the session with an overview of the Vector Control Professional Placement Programme (VCP), funded by the Gates Foundation. This program aims to identify and place qualified researchers from African institutions within established manufacturers of vector control products/solutions for hands-on experience in product development, from design to launch. The 12-month placements provide training in areas such as business planning, quality assurance, regulatory affairs and networking, with applications that opened on the Innovation to Impact\u2014VCP website in January 2025. Funding Information: In August 26\u201328, 2024, Ifakara Health Institute (IHI) and Institut de Recherche pour le D\u00E9veloppement (IRD), with support from the European INOVEC project (grant no. 101086257) jointly organized the international conference \u201CAdvances in surveillance and control methods for Aedes-borne diseases and urban vectors\u201D in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. This conference served as a forum for exchanges within the scientific community, including scientists, students and academia as well as representatives from public health sectors, stakeholders, donor agencies, industry and international organizations engaged in controlling vector-borne diseases. The objectives were: (i) to facilitate knowledge exchange and promote collaborative research and innovation for the surveillance and control of Aedes and ABDs in Africa and beyond; (ii) to review the performances of new tools, approaches and technologies for urban mosquito control, identifying gaps and priorities; and (iii) to promote inter-sectoral and international collaborations and facilitate discussions for actionable outcomes for improved public health measures against mosquito borne diseases. Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2025.
Vector-borne diseases, particularly arboviral diseases transmitted by mosquitoes (e.g. dengue, Zika and chikungunya), have (re)emerged globally with increasing prevalence and severity. Climatic and environmental changes have resulted in significant expansion of the geographical distribution of Aedes mosquito vectors to unprecedented levels, creating optimal conditions for their introduction and establishment in new areas, especially in Africa. The prevention of Aedes-borne diseases relies heavily on controlling vector populations. However, the global resurgence of dengue underscores the limitations of current vector control tools in preventing epidemics, highlighting the urgent need for affordable, scalable and community-based vector control measures to address Aedes-borne diseases and urban mosquito vectors (e.g. Aedes spp. and Anopheles stephensi), with the overall aim to improve public health and well-being. In this report, we summarize the main outcomes of the “International conference on advances in surveillance and control methods for Aedes-borne diseases and urban vectors” held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 26–28 August 2024. The conference aimed to facilitate knowledge exchange, promote collaborative research and drive innovation in the surveillance and control of Aedes-borne diseases in Africa. Key objectives included reviewing the performance of new tools and technologies for Aedes control, and fostering inter-sectoral and international collaborations to strengthen public health measures against mosquito-borne diseases. The event was attended by more than 200 participants from 20 nationalities/countries and was streamed live online, with 321 virtual accesses recorded during the 3-day event.
