Conference Abstract | Volume 9 (ConfPro8): Abstract 88 | Published: 11 Oct 2026
Samuel Atsitsre1,&, Daniel Mingle1, Irene Owusu Donkor2, Samuel Dadzie2
137 Military Hospital, Accra, Ghana, 2Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR), Accra, Ghana
&Corresponding author: Samuel Atsitsre, 37 Military Hospital, Accra, Ghana, Email: katsi.samuel@gmail.com
Received: 11 Mar 2026, Accepted: 30 Aug 2026, Published: 11 Oct 2026
Domain: Infectious Disease Epidemiology
Keywords: Mosquitoes, viral diseases, military, risks
©Samuel Atsitsre et al. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health (ISSN: 2664-2824). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Cite this article: Samuel Atsitsre et al., Mosquito-borne viral diseases risk in military settings in Ghana. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health. 2026;9(ConfPro8):88. https://doi.org/10.37432/JIEPH-CONFPRO8-0088
Mosquito-borne viral diseases (MBVDs) remain a public health issue, with Africa being a hotspot due to favourable environmental conditions. Military personnel, due to their frequent internal and external operations, are at high risk of infection and transmission. These diseases, which form part of vector-borne diseases (VBDs), have historically posed significant threats to military operations by diminishing combat power and imposing physical, psychological, and economic burdens. The evolution of MBVDs continues to outpace progress in preventive measures, especially in resource-limited tropical settings. In Ghana, the risks of MBVDs are heightened by its proximity to West African countries with recent outbreaks of West Nile virus (WNV), Zika virus (ZIKV), and Chikungunya virus (CHIKV). However, there is a paucity of data on the distribution and transmission risks of MBVDs in military environments.
1,236 Culex and Aedes female adult mosquitoes were trapped with BG-Sentinel traps and identified using morphological and molecular methods. The presence of DENV, YFV, WNV, CHIKV, and ZIKV was determined in the mosquitoes using conventional PCR and real-time RT-PCR assays. While no viral pathogens were detected in the sampled mosquitoes, the presence of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, known vectors for MBVDs suggests a potential transmission risk.
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