The factors of the discovery of new and old vector-borne diseases
In our modern times, it is possible to travel across the world in a day. Today one can reach a destination in less than 36 or even 24 h, for which in the past several days or a week was needed.
Also, people travel more because of the globalization of business or different vacation options and very often they take their pets with them—again, across the globe.Besides that, today there are many highly developed diagnostic laboratory methods which are:
• sensitive and can detect a very small part of the pathogens (DNA);
• specific for a certain pathogen; and
• available to most of the laboratories in the world.
These methods are based on molecular diagnostic procedures and have a possibility to detect new pathogens in different kind of samples and to detect different strains of the same pathogen.
There is also a factor of global warming and the adjustment of vectors to the climate changes. Some vectors in order to complete their life cycle need a certain temperature of the environment. Over a decade ago, some vectors could be found only in the Mediterranean region and now they can be found all the way in the Balkans. There was also seasonality in the appearance of some vectors, like ticks were not to be found from November until March in the countries with continental climate. Nowadays, in some countries, ticks can be found all around the year and they can also be found in north European countries. It seems like the vectors have a fantastic ability to adjust to climate changes, new locations, new hosts, and new pathogens, which all together makes them perfect organisms for spreading the disease.
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