Guarding against a growing global concern

Comprehensive testing to detect and diagnose

Just as climate change is worldwide, so too is the shifting vector-disease landscape. Changing weather patterns have forced a migration of animals — and the predatory insects that depend on them for food — to more habitable environments. And global temperature increases have allowed for the proliferation of many species that carry infectious disease. Illnesses like malaria, tick-borne encephalitis, and dengue fever will become more widespread as rising temperatures promote vector reproduction, parasite development cycle, and bite frequency.¹

While the majority of vector-borne diseases occur in the tropics and subtropics, these illnesses are frequently introduced by international travelers to new regions. As a result, pockets of infection in non-endemic regions are appearing with greater frequency. For example, Chikungunya virus, which is carried by Aedes mosquitos, was first identified in 1952 in the African country Tanzania and was limited to Africa and Asia until 2004, when an outbreak in Africa spread the disease to India. By 2007 the illness had reached Italy, and in the ensuing 10 years spread to nine additional European countries. In 2013, the illness was reported in the Americas for the first time.²

The right test, the right patient

As more global citizens face the threat of vector-borne illness, the importance of testing to identify disease and make informed treatment choices has become more pronounced. Mayo Clinic Laboratories offers one of the world’s most sophisticated infectious disease testing catalogs. From prevalent illnesses like malaria to rarer diseases like Zika virus, our tests span the infectious disease spectrum.

TESTING AVAILABLE FOR

TICK-BORNE DISEASES

• Lyme disease
• Anaplasmosis
• Babesiosis
• Ehrlichiosis
• Borrelia miyamotoi disease
• Alpha-gal syndrome

MOSQUITO-BORNE DISEASES

• Malaria
• West Nile virus
• Eastern equine virus
• Western equine virus
• California (La Crosse) encephalitis
• St. Louis encephalitis virus
• Dengue virus
• Zika virus
• Chikungunya virus

Other

• Chagas disease
• Parasite infection
• Visceral leishmaniasis