"Vector-borne disease" is the term commonly used to describe an illness caused by an infectious microbe that is transmitted by a blood-sucking arthropod from an infected vertebrate (e.g., bird, rodent, deer or human) to a susceptible person by a blood-sucking arthropod.
The vector-borne diseases that people are most familiar with are those that are transmitted by arthropods such as mosquitoes and ticks. Mosquitoes or ticks generally pick up a disease when they feed on an infected animal. In all cases, an infectious microbe must infect and multiply inside the arthropod before the arthropod is able to transmit the disease. These diseases can then be transmitted to humans when the infected mosquitoes or ticks bite people to take a blood meal.
The vector-borne diseases most commonly found in Virginia are transmitted by either mosquitoes or ticks.
Although not naturally occurring here in Virginia, Malaria is another mosquito-borne disease that is sometimes reported in Virginia.
* Picture: Ixodes scapularis (black-legged deer tick aka deer tick) photo from Centers for Disease Control