Report of the eleventh WHOPES working group meeting, WHO/HQ, Geneva, 10–13 December 2007

Overview

The eleventh meeting of the WHOPES Working Group, an advisory group to the WHO Pesticide Evaluation Scheme (WHOPES), was convened at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, from 10 to 13 December 2007. The objective of the meeting was to review the reports of testing and evaluation of spinosad 7.48% DT (tablet for direct application) of Dow AgroSciences, France, for mosquito larviciding, and three long-lasting insecticidal mosquito nets (LNs) for malaria prevention and control, namely: (i) Netprotect®, deltamethrin (incorporated into filaments) LN of Intelligent Insect Control, France; (ii) DuraNet®, alpha-cypermethrin (incorporated into filaments) LN of Clarke Mosquito Control, USA; and (iii) DawaPlus®, deltamethrin (coated) LN of Tana Netting, Thailand. The objective also included the review of reports of Icon® MAXX (an insecticide treatment kit) of Syngenta, Switzerland, for treatment of mosquito nets for malaria prevention and control.

The meeting was attended by 15 scientists (see Annex 1: List of participants). Dr Marc Coosemans 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plenary and group sessions, in which the reports of the WHOPES supervised trials and relevant published literature and unpublished reports were reviewed and discussed (see Annex 2: References). Recommendations on the use of the above-mentioned products were made.

The meeting also reviewed the results of WHOPES testing and evaluation of LNs to identify the information on and data gaps for future development and evaluation of such products, and made recommendations for further action.