Project aims:
The main aim of this action is to establish a transboundary network of partners and institutions across Europe to cost effectively address the management of the risk of introduction and spread of Exotic Invasive Aedes Mosquito Borne Viruses (EAIMBV; e.g. dengue, DENV; yellow fever, YFV; chikungunya, CHIKV; Japanese encephalitis, JEV, and ZIKAV). To do this using both conventional and innovative methods, strong linkage between academics, public health (PH) professionals and policy-makers at the national and international level, as well as more a integrated private sector and a better informed and engaged society. The action will facilitate a co-ordinated multidisciplinary research approach to identify and fill knowledge gaps, enhance research effectiveness, standardise, optimise and promote new country-tailored surveillance and control procedures, and improve dissemination of information on the risk caused by invasive Aedes mosquitoes.
AIM Cost Action will build a gender, age and geographically balanced network from critical stakeholder sectors. The Action will assess and review current surveillance, control and analysis practices, develop best practice guidelines and protocols ensuring consistency across Europe. It will facilitate development of new tools and identify priority research topics. Recommendations to standardise and streamline entomological and spatial analysis will promote enhanced risk assessments needed for reliable targeting and planning. Critical elements maximising impact will be involvement of civil society and citizen scientists, as well as collaborative dissemination ensuring that technical outputs and guidelines are customised at different geographical scales for each operational stakeholder group. Lessons learned will be transferrable to other emerging vector borne diseases worldwide.