Report of the ninth WHOPES working group meeting, WHO/HQ, Geneva, 5–9 December 2005

Overview

The ninth meeting of the WHOPES Working Group, an advisory group to the WHO Pesticide Evaluation Scheme (WHOPES), was convened at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on 5–9 December 2005. The objective of the meeting was to review the reports of testing and evaluation of Dimilin (diflubenzuron) 2% GR and 2% DT (Crompton, Netherlands) and VectoBac (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis)DT, 3000 international toxic units (ITU)/mg (Valent BioSciences, USA) for mosquito larviciding; and Aqua K-Othrin (deltamethrin) 2% w/w EW and Aqua Reslin Super EW (= Aqua Resigen; containing permethrin 25/75 cis/trans (10.35% w/w), s-bioallethrin (0.14% w/w) and piperonyl butoxide (9.85% w/w) (Bayer Environmental Science, France)) for space spraying for mosquito and fly control.

The meeting was attended by 12 scientists (see Annex 1: List of participants). Dr Mir Mulla was appointed as Chairman and Dr Purushothaman Jambulingam as Rapporteur. The meeting was convened in plenary and group sessions, in which the reports of the WHOPES supervised trials and relevant published literature (see Annex 2: References) were reviewed and discussed. Recommendations on the use of the above-mentioned products were made.

The group also reviewed and revised the draft guidelines for testing mosquito adulticides for indoor residual spraying and for treatment of nets, to be published as a separate document by WHOPES.