Gratz Norman G. The vector- and rodent-borne diseases of Europe and North America: their distribution and public health burden

Cambridge University Press, 2006. — 411 p.There are a significant number of diseases carried by insects such as mosquitoes or sand flies or by ticks, mites and rodents, and these are far more common than is often realized. New diseases are constantly being discovered and are becoming more widely distributed with the increase in travelling, to and from tropical, disease-endemic countries. Here, Norman Gratz (former Director, Division of Vector Biology and Control, World Health Organization), reviews the distribution of the vector and rodent-borne diseases in Europe, the USA and Canada; their incidence and prevalence, their costs and hence their public health burdens are detailed, and their arthropod vectors and rodent reservoir hosts described. Armed with such information, the individual clinician is more likely to have a degree of epidemiological suspicion that will lead to an earlier diagnosis and correct treatment of these infections. Equally, authorities will more readily understand the measures necessary to control this group of infectious agents.