A transdisciplinary approach to managing mosquito-borne diseases in the Western Pacific Region

Mosquitoes transmit a number of harmful diseases that have an impact on local communities and visitors, and many pose a threat to neighbouring countries. Dr Dani Barrington discusses the importance of citizen science in managing species and preventing disease.

Managing mosquito-borne diseases in the Western Pacific Region

Monitoring and analysis by citizen scientists can contribute to larger scale pest management while concurrently empowering communities to enact their own changes to reduce the spread of mosquito-borne disease at the local level. This is one of the key conclusions from a recently published paper in the open-access journal Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease.

As federal monitoring budgets shrink globally, the paper discusses, citizen scientists’ role in monitoring and identifying invasive mosquito species, as well as acting to prevent these diseases, becomes increasingly important. The paper also provides examples of past mosquito management programs, along with a discussion on the future direction of management with an emphasis on the Western Pacific Region.

Written by Dr Dani Barrington and Dr Margaret Hardy, the full paper can be accessed for free online here: