Current research issues in mosquito-borne diseases modeling

Abstract

Mosquito-borne diseases modeling enters the mathematical literature through the hands of Ronald Ross. We have come a long way since Ross' seminal contribution. Recent advances in molecular biology and genetics provide new tools to monitor diversity among pathogens, vertebrate and invertebrate hosts. The genetic manipulation of pathogens and vectors also holds a promissing future. Current population dynamics paradigms seem ill-equiped to make appropriate predictions in this context and need to be expanded. We briefly review some of the current main research issues brought by these new technologies and argue that a new unifying modeling paradigm becomes necessary.