Bayer Applauds the World Health Organization’s focus on Vector-Borne Diseases

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), every year more than one billion people are infected and more than one million die from a vector-borne disease. And importantly, these infections can be prevented by stopping the “bites” that transmit the diseases.   

Today we are joining the World Health Organization to raise awareness about vector-borne diseases through their global public health campaign with the slogan “Small bite, big threat,” and the hashtag #Just1Bite.  

The WHO defines vectors as, “living organisms that can transmit infectious diseases between humans or from animals to humans. Many of these vectors are bloodsucking insects that ingest disease-producing micro-organisms during a blood meal from an infected host (human or animal) and later inject them into a new host during their next blood meal.” Vectors may include mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, and sandflies. 

Vector-borne disease is an important topic for Bayer. The Animal Health division recently hosted the 2014 Canine Vector-Borne Disease (CVBD) Web Conference to raise awareness about the diseases that can be transmitted by vectors between dogs and people.  This conference focused on case-studies in vector borne disease treatment, and the broader public health implications of zoonotic disease transmission.  Over 7,000 veterinarians and those interested in CVBDs, from 123 countries, registered online for the Bayer event. 

For World Health Day 2014, Bayer is proud to actively support this WHO campaign and will be using the hashtags #Just1Bite #OneHealth and #CVBD in social media (www.twitter.com/Bayer4Animals).  To learn more about Bayer’s commitment to CVBDs, visit www.CVBD.org