Prevention and Control of Aedes aegypti-borne Diseases: Lesson Learned from Past Successes and Failures

Historically, Aedes aegypti has been one of the most important mosquito vectors of human disease. A native of Africa, it was introduced to the Americas in the 1600s by the slave trade, and became highly domesticated, adapted to humans, and a highly efficient vector of epidemic yellow fever and dengue. As the shipping industry expanded in the 18th and 19th centuries, Ae. aegypti was transported around the world, infesting port cities and then moving inland along routes of transportation (Gubler, 1997). The result was major epidemics of dengue in Asian and American countries. Fortunately, for reasons that are unrelated to dengue but not yet fully understood, yellow fever epidemics never occurred in Asia (Curtis and Reuben, 2007). Dengue epidemics occurred at infrequent intervals because the viruses and mosquito vectors depended on sailing ships to move them between continents. During World War II, however, transmission intensified as both the Allied and Japanese armies spread the viruses and Ae. aegypti throughout the Asian and Pacific regions. Dengue fever was a major cause of casualties in both armies in these theatres; it was at this time that the dengue viruses were first isolated (Kimura and Hotta, 1944; Sabin and Schlesinger, 1945).