CHAPTER 30: Photodynamic Therapy for Vector-Borne Diseases¹

Vector-borne diseases, such as malaria, dengue fever, West Nile encephalitis and leishmaniasis, represent major threats to human and animal health, as well as to the environment, and are mainly transmitted by arthropod species. The incidence of vector-borne diseases is growing and spreading worldwide owing to the combined impact of factors such as climate change, the expansion of poverty and globalization. Integrated prevention strategies must be developed and implemented in endemic disease areas in order to reverse the trend of emergent/resurgent vector-borne diseases. Within this perspective, porphyrins and their analogs, which have been shown to act as very efficient photosensitizing agents against a broad variety of pathogens, could represent an important tool for the prevention and control of these illnesses, both in the therapy and in the control of vectors, which are increasingly resistant to synthetic insecticides.