TY  - JOUR
A1  - Dhimal, Meghnath
A1  - Dahal, Sushma
A1  - Dhimal, Mandira Lamichhane
A1  - Mishra, Shiva Raj
A1  - Karki, Khem Bahadur
A1  - Aryal, Krishna Kumar
A1  - Haque, Ubydul
A1  - Kabir, Md Iqbal
A1  - Guin, Pradeep
A1  - Butt, Azeem Mehmood
A1  - Harapan, Harapan
A1  - Liu, Qi-Yong
A1  - Chu, Cordia
A1  - Montag, Doreen
A1  - Groneberg, Jan David Alexander
A1  - Pandey, Basu Dev
A1  - Kuch, Ulrich
A1  - Müller, Ruth
T1  - Threats of Zika virus transmission for Asia and its Hindu-Kush Himalayan region
T2  - Infectious diseases of poverty
N2  - Asia and its Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region is particularly vulnerable to environmental change, especially climate and land use changes further influenced by rapid population growth, high level of poverty and unsustainable development. Asia has been a hotspot of dengue fever and chikungunya mainly due to its dense human population, unplanned urbanization and poverty. In an urban cycle, dengue virus (DENV) and chikungunya virus (CHIKV) are transmitted by Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus mosquitoes which are also competent vectors of Zika virus (ZIKV). Over the last decade, DENV and CHIKV transmissions by Ae. aegypti have extended to the Himalayan countries of Bhutan and Nepal and ZIKV could follow in the footsteps of these viruses in the HKH region. The already established distribution of human-biting Aedes mosquito vectors and a naïve population with lack of immunity against ZIKV places the HKH region at a higher risk of ZIKV. Some of the countries in the HKH region have already reported ZIKV cases. We have documented an increasing threat of ZIKV in Asia and its HKH region because of the high abundance and wide distribution of human-biting mosquito vectors, climate change, poverty, report of indigenous cases in the region, increasing numbers of imported cases and a naïve population with lack of immunity against ZIKV. An outbreak anywhere is potentially a threat everywhere. Therefore, in order to ensure international health security, all efforts to prevent, detect, and respond to ZIKV ought to be intensified now in Asia and its HKH region. To prepare for possible ZIKV outbreaks, Asia and the HKH region can also learn from the success stories and strategies adopted by other regions and countries in preventing ZIKV and associated complications. The future control strategies for DENV, CHIKV and ZIKV should be considered in tandem with the threat to human well-being that is posed by other emerging and re-emerging vector-borne and zoonotic diseases, and by the continuing urgent need to strengthen public primary healthcare systems in the region.
KW  - Aedes aegypti
KW  - Aedes albopictus
KW  - Dengue virus
KW  - Chikungunya virus
KW  - Hindu Kush Himalayas
KW  - Mountain
KW  - Poverty
KW  - Zika virus
Y1  - 2018
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/46977
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-469775
SN  - 2049-9957
N1  - Open Access: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
VL  - 7
IS  - 1, Art. 40
SP  - 1
EP  - 7
PB  - Biomed Central
CY  - London
ER  -