MOSCOW, June 19. /TASS/. The United States actively conducts research on insect-borne diseases that are not characteristic of North America, such as Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, tick-borne and Japanese encephalitis, Chief of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov said on Monday.

"Notably, many of the diseases being researched, for instance, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, tick-borne and Japanese encephalitis, do not occur in the United States and are no threat to North America," he told a briefing.

According to Kirillov, research organizations of the US Department of Defense have published in open sources more than 100 studies about key species of mosquitos and ticks that transmit epidemic diseases such as Rift Valley fever, West Nile fever, dengue fever, and Zika fever.

He also cited official reports from the World Health Organization (WHO) saying that the latest large outbreak of yellow fever in Africa in 2013 was linked with a dramatic increase in the mosquito population, which caused more than 170,000 cases of severe fever and 60,000 deaths.