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Arbovirus is a truncated term for arthropod-bome viruses, all of which require multiplication in their vectors for transmission.

Arboviruses diseases may be simpler to understand when viewed solely from the position of the end product, which is disease in humans or other vertebrates. The diseases fall into a few recognizable sets: (1) encephalitides; (2) diseases with fever and rash, often fairly benign; (3) diseases with hemorrhagic manifestations, often fatal; and (4) mild fevers, quite undiagnosable except through laboratory study.

A common feature of all of these is periodic outbreaks, with dozens, hundreds, or thou­sands of cases. A second common feature is lack of specific treatment. In addition, only for very few of the diseases do vaccines exist. Possibility of disease control is real, however, and is based on a knowledge of the epidemiology of arbovirus infections in gen­eral, the role that vectors play, and the particular features in regard to the transmission of the specific disease in question.

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Source: Kiple Kenneth F. (Editor). The Cambridge World History of Human Disease. Cambridge University Press,1993. — 1200 p.. 1993

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