vetor
Published 8 November 2026, 22:47
vetor — a disease carrier (mosquito, tick, sandfly)
A living creature that carries a disease-causing agent from one person or animal to another: a mosquito, a tick, a sandfly. It usually does not fall ill itself. Hence the name of the state surveillance programme: REVIVE, Rede de Vigilância de Vetores.
Where you come across it. Reports of a new mosquito species being found, INSA reports, health service warnings.
A vector and an infected vector are not the same thing. A mosquito capable of carrying dengue cannot transmit the disease until it is itself infected; on the mainland, infected mosquitoes have never been found.