A bridge against arboviruses: Mosquito Alert in Rio de Janeiro


This September and October 2025, two members of the Mosquito Alert team travelled to Rio de Janeiro for an international stay. The opportunity is part of the INOVEC, a a European Staff Exchange project that connects research centres and companies around the world to promote new strategies for controlling arboviruses – mosquito-borne diseases – such as dengue, Zika, yellow fever and chikungunya. 


The stay coincided with an international seminar held in the city from 19 to 21 September:: “Strengthening North-South research cooperation in social sciences for protecting vulnerable populations from Aedes-borne diseases”.




The main objective was to strengthen collaboration between research teams and centres in the Global North and South, and to share knowledge in order to better protect the most vulnerable populations from Aedes mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit through innovative techniques in the social sciences. Over the course of two days, projects carried out at research centres around the world were presented: Cuba, Colombia, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Uruguay, France and the United Kingdom, in addition to the participation of CEAB-CSIC as a representative of Mosquito Alert. A round table was also organised on the challenges and opportunities of community participation in the control of vector-borne diseases.


One of the items on the agenda was to present Mosquito Alert, a citizen science platform that allows mosquitoes that can transmit these types of diseases to be monitored in real time.




The secondment, a one-month stay at INOVEC, took place at the Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), a leading public health research centre in Brazil. The two Mosquito Alert members who participated were:


Jesús Bellver –  Pedicting where to capture mosquitoes to improve surveillance


Jesús, a postdoctoral researcher at CEAB-CSIC, has completed a fellowship with the group led by Ademir Martins at the Laboratory of Biology, Control and Surveillance of Insect Vectors (LBCVIV).


For more than 20 years, this team has been studying the biology, genetics and physiology of mosquitoes that can transmit diseases. They also develop innovative technologies to improve vector surveillance and control.




During this month, Jesús has developed high-resolution spatio-temporal models to understand how mosquito populations are distributed in urban environments. The aim is to optimise the trap placement strategy in order to be more successful in capturing them. He is adapting these models to the particularities of Maré, one of the largest favelas in Rio and closest to FIOCRUZ, where the institution also carries out some research, such as the entomofavela project.


Mar Jambou –Citizen science and social sciences tandem


Mar has collaborated with the group of Marcia Freitas Lenzi, a specialist in public health and the social impact of epidemics and vulnerability associated with social inequialities. This group also includes Gabriela Azevedo, a researcher with extensive experience in social projects related to childhood, gender equality and violence prevention.




The main objective of their stay was to assess whether Mosquito Alert could be implemented in the Brazilian context. To this end, surveys initially designed in Tanzania (during a previous secondment by another team member, Enric Pou) were adapted and translated into Portuguese.


Mar trained three FIOCRUZ employees (workers from the Entomofavela project) to conduct the surveys among the FIOCRUZ community.




After this great experience, they return with a very clear idea: these types of stays demonstrate that public health research is more powerful when done in collaboration, by sharing experiences and innovations between territories.