Public Health Ontario
Ontario Vector-Borne Disease Tool
About the Art
This watercolour piece renders the spiral form of Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, at a scale far beyond what any microscope shows — repeated, interlocking, until the organism’s own shape becomes a lattice. Rendered in fine, branching linework, the piece sits somewhere between the biological and the abstract: a single curling structure, multiplied until it resembles something closer to a woven net. The repetition mirrors how a single microscopic form, multiplied, becomes a population-level concern — the kind of pattern public health surveillance exists to track before it’s visible to the naked eye. The piece speaks to Ontario’s Vector-Borne Disease Tool, which brings Lyme disease data together with other tick- and mosquito-borne illnesses into one accessible, real-time public resource.
Original artwork by Aedán Crooke of Surface Impression. No AI was used in generating this artwork.
An interactive public health dashboard that brings together human case data, tick and mosquito surveillance, and blacklegged tick risk areas for vector-borne diseases in Ontario
Public Health Ontario’s interactive tool brings human cases, tick and mosquito surveillance, and established risk areas together so people can explore changing vector-borne disease patterns by location.
Public Health Ontario’s Vector-Borne Disease Tool brings several streams of surveillance data together so people can more easily see and understand changing disease patterns.
The tool brings together data on anaplasmosis, babesiosis, Lyme disease, Powassan virus infection and West Nile virus illness, along with mosquito and tick surveillance and blacklegged tick established risk areas. It helps people living in and visiting Ontario assess local risk and take preventive action, while giving health care providers, public health units, journalists and researchers a trusted source for emerging trends.
The tool is interactive and self-serve. Users can explore maps, dashboards, geographic layers and trend views, including human case data, positive ticks, tick submissions, mosquito trap locations, mosquito counts and disease-specific information. PHO updates human case and mosquito data weekly during mosquito season and tick data annually, making information available when risks are changing.
The tool improves access to government-held environmental and human health data while remaining consistent with PHIPA and privacy-by-design principles. It uses aggregated, non-identifiable information and provides user guides and technical notes to support proper interpretation.
The tool also shows measurable public value. From May 1, 2025, to May 1, 2026, it generated 32,867 page views, 21,164 active users and 112,943 meaningful interactions. It was cited in 12 media articles and 119 grey literature sources, and was featured in a PHO webinar that drew 527 registrants.
Bringing multiple surveillance streams together in one accessible platform helps Ontarians understand changing risks, supports informed prevention and demonstrates responsible public disclosure of health information.
