Page - 67 - in Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change

67© The Author(s) 2019 M. R. Marselle et al. (eds.), Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02318-8_4 Chapter 4 Vector-Borne Diseases Ruth  Müller, Friederike  Reuss, Vladimir  Kendrovski, and  Doreen  Montag Abstract Vector-borne diseases (VBDs) are illnesses caused by parasites, viruses or bacteria that are transmitted by a vector such as mosquitoes, ticks, sandflies, tri- atomine bugs, tsetse flies, fleas, black flies, aquatic snails and lice. In this chapter, we aim to show how climate change impacts VBDs and what role biodiversity (and its loss) plays for VBDs. (1) We show how climatic changes shape the distribution and abundance of disease vectors. To point out current triple vulnerabilities regard- ing climate change, biodiversity and VBDs, we selected ticks and mosquitoes as examples. (2) We point out important knowledge gaps on VBDs and biodiversity, which make prognoses for VBDs under climate change challenging. (3) We review vector control tools as well as policy options and related infrastructural responses to manage VBDs under climate and biodiversity changes. R. Müller (*) Institute of Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany Polo d’Innovazione di Genomica, Genetica e Biologia (PoloGGB), Terni, Italy e-mail: ruth.mueller@med.uni-frankfurt.de F. Reuss Institute of Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Frankfurt am Main, Germany Instítute for Ecology, Diversity and Evolution, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany e-mail: friederike.reuss@senckenberg.de V. Kendrovski European Centre for Environment and Health, WHO Regional Office for Europe, Bonn, Germany e-mail: kendrovskiv@who.int D. Montag Barts and the London School of Medicine, Centre for Primary Care and Public Health, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK e-mail: d.montag@qmul.ac.uk