Following the increased Yellow fever outbreaks in the country since, 2017, National Arbovirus and Vectors Research Centre (NAVRC) has been increasing the efforts it is making towards the containment of the virus through increased surveillance activities throughout the country. The Centre has established vector sentinel sites in over twenty communities, from five states in the North Central and South-East geopolitical zones between 2018 and 2019. It has through this means determined; Aedes species composition, abundance, and their insecticide resistance status.
Having concluded the first phase of vector surveillance activities, NAVRC is set to step up activities to the second phase in the 2020 surveillance. In this second phase, the additional task would be: to detect arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) in sample collections from vectors and human subjects with febrile illnesses, using RT-PCR analysis.
This will enable the Centre determine the risks of arboviral diseases (Yellow fever, Dengue, Chikunguya,ZIka etc), in human population, and act as a pointer for timely interventions to forestall disease outbreaks in the states.
Aedes mosquito is the vector for several arbovirus infections