Equipment for vector control -- Third edition

Overview

The control of public health pests and vectors of human disease requires a number of different strategies. The use of pesticides has produced spectacular control of certain vectors, but the development and spread of resistance to pesticides, concern about environmental contamination and increased costs of chemicals have re-emphasized the need to use several control techniques simultaneously or sequentially in integrated vector control programmes. The essential requirement for integrated control is the availability of more than one method of control which can be utilized in a cost-effective manner. The methods used must, of course, be compatible with one another, for example use of a selective pesticide that does not have detrimental effects on naturally occurring biological control agents.

Source reduction of a vector and improved sanitation through health education are fundamental means of environmental management to control several vectors; other control methods serve as a supplement. In recent years, control measures have involved several types of environ-mental management, such as drainage of mosquito breeding sites or promoting personal protection through the use of screened windows and bednets. Environmental management for vector control was reviewed at a meeting of the WHO Expert Committee on Vector Biology and Control in November 1979.1 Detailed descriptions of certain environmental management measures are given in a 1982 WHO publication, Manual on environmental management for mosquito control, with special emphasis on malaria vectors (WHO Offset Publication, No. 66).

Biological control of vectors, through the use of bacterial agents and the introduction of fish and other predators and pathogens, is now a component of some programmes for the control of vector-borne diseases. The greatest potential of these agents lies in their ability to augment the effect of natural enemies and in their use in combination with limited amounts of chemical pesticides.