No, already?Mosquito surveillance will begin at the end of this month
Mar 24, 2025
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Mosquitoes that can carry major infectious diseases spread by mosquitoes such as Japanese encephalitis, malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, Zika virus infection, and West Nile fever live nationwide. Japanese encephalitis and malaria are occurring as mosquito-borne infectious diseases in Korea, and while intensive monitoring is carried out every year to prepare for the influx of infectious diseases such as dengue fever.
According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 21 Japanese encephalitis patients (domestic outbreaks), 713 malaria patients (domestic outbreaks 659 and overseas inflow 54), 196 dengue fever patients, and 9 Chikungunya fever patients (overseas inflow) occurred last year.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducts surveillance at 169 locations across the country from March to October in cooperation with the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, local governments (Health and Environment Research Institute, Health Center) and the private sector (Climate Change Base Center) to monitor mosquitoes.
In the surveillance project, collected mosquitoes are converted into the Trap Index (TI), and changes in occurrence (normal, previous year, and previous week) are checked for pathogen infection through genetic testing. Based on the mosquito index and pathogen confirmation results, warnings and alerts for mosquito control and prevention are issued, and the results of the monitoring project are disclosed as 'pathogen and vector monitoring week information' on the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's infectious disease website.
Ji Young-mi, the head of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said "As Korea becomes subtropical due to climate change, the timing of mosquitoes is gradually accelerating and the amount of mosquitoes is increasing."Based on mosquito monitoring information, local governments should carry out intensive control at the point of larval occurrence and make efforts to reduce the occurrence of mosquito infectious diseases as much as possible through preventive publicity and education for local residents.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
