The passengers boarding planes in Chisinau will receive brochures about vector-borne diseases within the World Health Day. Vector-borne diseases rely upon organisms, named vectors, such as mosquitoes, ticks or sandflies that have an active role in the transmission of a pathogen from one host to the other. This year’s World Health Day has the slogan “Small but dangerous”, IPN reports.

Minister of Health Andrei Usatyi told a news conference that more than one million people worldwide die from vector-borne diseases each year. Moldova is greatly exposed to the Lyme disease transmitted by ticks. In African and Asian states, the insects can transmit such diseases as malaria, dengue, leishmaniasis and yellow fever.

In order to prevent infection, the Ministry of Health recommends the Moldovan citizens to get immunized and to receive the necessary treatments.

World Health Organization Representative in Moldova Jarno Habicht said one fifth of the infectious diseases in Moldova are caused by insects. The risk of catching an infectious disease is high for one third of the Moldovans who go often abroad. That’s why the people are urged to inform themselves beforehand about the dangers to which they are exposed in a country with infection risks and how to protect themselves.