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Overview
World Mosquito Day is celebrated annually on 20 August to commemorate British doctor Sir Ronald Ross’s landmark discovery in 1897 that female Anopheles mosquitoes are responsible for transmitting malaria.
Key facts
- Mosquitoes are responsible for transmitting a variety of viral and parasitic vector-borne diseases: Aedes (Chikungunya, Dengue, Rift Valley fever, Yellow Fever, and Zika), Anopheles (Lymphatic filariasis, Malaria, and O’nyong’nyong fever), and Culex (Japanese encephalitis, Lymphatic filariasis, and West Nile fever).
- Vector-borne diseases cause 17% of all infectious diseases and over 700,000 deaths annually.
- Malaria causes 249 million cases and 608,000 deaths every year, mostly among children under 5.
- Dengue threatens 3.9 billion people across 132+ countries, with 96 million symptomatic cases and 40,000 deaths annually.
Call for action
World Mosquito Day remind us for sustained investment in the prevention, control, and research of mosquito-borne diseases to protect communities worldwide. It goes beyond raising awareness — it calls for transformative action.
- re:think outbreak response
- re:write the story of global health and disease control
- re:define what prevention looks like — Smart. Safe. Self-sustaining.
- re:place fear with protection
- re:imagine global health
- re:imagine the future
Read more: WHO, World Mosquito Programme
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