Vector-borne diseases are transmitted to humans by blood-feeding arthropods such as mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas. These cold-blooded animals are influenced by environmental change. A recent report by IPCC showed that the emission of greenhouse gases has already changed world climates. Heat waves in Europe, rises in global mean sea level, summer droughts and wild fires, more intense precipitation, and increasing numbers of large cyclones, hurricanes and typhoon may be typical example of extreme climate phenomena related to global warming. High temperatures during winter season may increase survival rate among arthropod vectors in Temperate Zone. Warming may accelerate the spread of mosquitoes such as Aedes albopictus in the northern parts of Japan and European countries. The spread of the mosquito vector through global used-tire trading in recent decades to Africa, the Mideast, Europe, and North and South America caused an outbreak of Chikungunya fever in north Italy in 2007.

• Mutsuo Kobayashi(Department of Medical Entomology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Japan)
• Osamu Komagata(Department of Medical Entomology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Japan)
• Naoko Nihei(Department of Medical Entomology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Japan)