**1. Introduction**

Vector-borne diseases and many zoonotic diseases remain significantly relevant in tropical areas, such as Latin America. In the specific case of those caused by viruses, arboviruses, this region, as well as Asia, are particularly affected over time, primarily due to the widespread of competent vectors, as is the case of *Aedes aegypti*, but also *A. albopictus*, and more recently *A. vittatus* [1, 2]. Then, as expected, an integrated One Health approach, considering the environment, and animal and human health, is needed for vector-borne diseases [3].

Over the last decades, multiple arboviral diseases caused by alphaviruses and flaviviruses have been a concern in Latin America [4]. However, since the introduction of yellow fever and dengue, the epidemiological landscape in the region has significantly changed [5]. Dutch slave traders brought yellow fever (YFV) to the America from Africa during the mid-seventeenth century.

For the next two and a half centuries, the disease terrorized seaports throughout the America [6]. Reports describe the possible first introduction in 1648 in Mexico [5, 7–9]. Although some studies suggest dengue (DENV) was introduced in the America, through the Caribbean islands in 1635 [5, 10, 11], before 1981, dengue was considered a public health problem only in Asia and posed little or no threat to the region of the America [11, 12]. This scenario shifted with the 1981 Cuban epidemic,

the first significant dengue epidemic in the area. For the following decade, sporadic cases of dengue were observed. Then, in 1990, Venezuela experienced the second major epidemic in the region. These events marked dengue as an emerging disease in the America [11, 12]. As observed, flaviviruses, such as dengue and yellow fever, have been significant concerns regarding morbidity and mortality in the region [4, 13–27]. Additionally, many of them, as observed with Zika (ZIKV) and chikungunya (CHIKV), lead to chronic consequences, such as central nervous system (CNS) compromise (including congenital microcephaly and other complications of congenital Zika syndrome) [28–32], as well as chronic rheumatic and non-rheumatic diseases (CHIKV) [33–39].

Taxonomically speaking, the essential arboviruses are included in the genus alphavirus, family Togaviridae (**Figure 1**), which consists of a total of 32 species; and in the genus flavivirus, family Flaviviridae (**Figure 2**), where 53 species are currently included.


**Figure 1.**

*Taxonomical classification of viruses belonging to the genus alphavirus (family Togaviridae, order martellivirales, class alsuviricetes). (https://ictv.global/taxonomy).*


## **Figure 2.**

*Taxonomical classification of viruses belonging to the genus flavivirus (family Flaviviridae, order amarillovirales, class flasuviricetes). (https://ictv.global/taxonomy).*

Alphaviruses, originally endemic in Latin America, such as the Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) and the eastern equine encephalitis; were described in 1920 in Venezuela and 1972 in Trinidad and Tobago, respectively [5]. Mayaro virus, another

**Figure 3.**

*The number of articles published about arboviruses (alphaviruses, flaviviruses, and orthobunyaviruses) in Latin America, cumulated until November 1, 2022, in PubMed-indexed journals. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/).*

alphavirus from Trinidad and Tobago, was described in 1954. In Trinidad and Tobago, an endemic orthobunyavirus, the Oropouche virus, was described in 1955 [5].

Then, as observed in the number of published articles available in PubMed (**Figure 3**), many of these arboviruses in Latin America, such as Mayaro (MAYV), Madariaga (MADV), Saint Louis encephalitis (SLEV), Rocio (ROCV), and Oropuche (OROV) are neglected. Nevertheless, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), only DENV and CHIKV are formally included as neglected tropical diseases (https://www.who.int/health-topics/neglected-tropical-diseases).

Even the total of articles of them (1364) is much lower than the total of DENV (20.5 times higher), ZIKV (8 times), YFV (6 times), CHIKV (5 times), or VEE (1.4 times) (**Figure 3**). So then, MAYV, MADV, SLEV, ROCV, and OROV may be considered neglected. As a consequence, such arboviruses will be analyzed in the current chapter.
