Vector - Borne Diseases

**3**

**Chapter 1**

*and John C. Beier*

**Abstract**

funding.

**1. Introduction**

Persistent Barriers to

Implementing Efficacious

from Vector Control Experts

*Imelda K. Moise, Leo C. Zulu, Douglas O. Fuller* 

Mosquito Control Activities in the

Continental United States: Insights

Many barriers undermine vector surveillance and control efforts in the United States. Experts warn that such barriers, including funding, threaten the capacity of public-health surveillance systems to detect emerging mosquito-borne disease and respond appropriately, timely and effectively. This chapter explores the status, barriers, and corrective strategies to effective mosquito surveillance and control in the US based on experiences and insights of the 35 interviewed representatives of diverse mosquito-control programs selected from 18 U.S. states. Although our interest is in mosquito-borne diseases, we focus on the 2016 Zika outbreak. For the most part, this chapter will outline issues relating to mosquito control and surveillance that have persistent among state, county and municipal programs as a result of insufficient and unreliable funding, inadequate trained personnel, poor facilities, and inadequate political support. At the community level, we will discuss issues that hinder mosquito control efforts including apathy and low public awareness, and provide examples of how mosquito control agencies have adapted to "readily" respond to changing vector-borne disease environments, demands and constrained

**Keywords:** mosquito-borne diseases, Zika, barriers, mosquito control, United States

The question of how ready United States (U.S.) public health officials are to prevent and control vector-borne disease transmission has received considerable attention since the first West Nile Virus (WNV) outbreak of 1999 in New York renewed by the recent Zika virus (ZIKV) outbreak. The first reported case of local ZIKV transmission through infected mosquitoes in the Continental United States was in Miami, Florida, in late July 2015. Although the global problem of mosquitoborne diseases (MBDs) is "as old as the pyramids" [1], it is a critical time to revisit mosquito control because despite significant gains in reducing the risk and incidence of some MBDs (particularly malaria); the world has seen a rise in the risk and

## **Chapter 1**
