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Driving integrated vector control in the global sustainable development framework

| July 15, 2016

The Aedes mosquito and other vectors of disease are currently receiving unprecedented global attention and scrutiny following recent outbreaks of infectious diseases including Zika and dengue fever and the world is looking for adequate response and a wide range of solutions to tackle these threats to global public health. Controlling these vectors successfully would not only reduce the incidence of vector-borne diseases but could also impact at the very least on six of the Sustainable Development Goals.

There is a pressing opportunity for professionals and researchers in vector control to advocate for their crucial role in the understanding and control of disease outbreaks and, equally, there is also an urgent need to assess where and how this field can operate more effectively and collaboratively and move from offering reactionary responses to improved precautionary strategies.

ISNTD Bites is the annual vector control and disease surveillance conference organised by the International Society for Neglected Tropical Diseases, held this year in London at Lord’s Cricket Ground on March 17. Chaired by ISNTD director Marianne Comparet, ISNTD Bites brings together professionals and innovators in the field of vector-control solutions with colleagues from policy and research to achieve partnerships and deliver the rapid responses and longer-term programmes to address vector-borne diseases.

The panel from session 2 discuss evidence-based tools for Vector-Borne Diseases: from data to control. From left to right Dr. Catherine Moyes (University of Oxford SEEG / MAP; ABRAID), Mr. Steve Barnes (Access Devices Asia & FIGHT Dengue) (on screen), Pr. Mark Eisler (University of Bristol School of Veterinary Science), Dr. Michael Coleman (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine), Dr. Mauricio Santillana (Harvard University / HealthMap), Ms. Freya Shearer (University of Oxford SEEG).

The panel from session 2 discuss evidence-based tools for Vector-Borne Diseases: from data to control. From left to right Dr. Catherine Moyes (University of Oxford SEEG / MAP; ABRAID), Mr. Steve Barnes (Access Devices Asia & FIGHT Dengue) (on screen), Pr. Mark Eisler (University of Bristol School of Veterinary Science), Dr. Michael Coleman (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine), Dr. Mauricio Santillana (Harvard University / HealthMap), Ms. Freya Shearer (University of Oxford SEEG).

Through four focus sessions and panel discussions, the conference reviewed the current challenges in controlling vectors and vector-borne diseases as well as the unique window of opportunity for the field of vector control to impact on numerous diseases and deliver advances in global health as well as long-term global development.

Current challenges in vector control: evolving boundaries

Presentations from government and international organisations provided a wideranging overview of the rapidly growing threat of vector-borne diseases, with evolving boundaries accentuated by current migration, wars and climate change.

Dr. Raman Velayudhan from the World Health Organisation showed that diseases spread by the Aedes mosquito such as dengue fever and Zika threaten over half of the world’s population and emphasised that Aedes is an extremely resilient vector of disease. Dr. Waleed Al-Salem from the Ministry of Health Saudi Arabia presented a comprehensive overview of the underreported leishmaniasis epidemic in Syria and spreading through the Middle East following the recent years of conflict. Dr. Ana Maria Silva from the Department of Health Madeira, an island that saw Europe’s first dengue outbreak in 2012-13 for almost a century, said that this winter had seen unprecedented temperatures locally, increasing the favourable conditions for mosquitoes to breed–despite a wide range of cost-effective local operational solutions and programmes to control vectors and clear their breeding sites, including the use of sea salt-water, regional administrations remain highly alert to any development of mosquitos on the island. …

This is an extract of the full article published in International Pest Control – May/June 2016 issue.

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Authors: Marianne Comparet and Kamran Rafiq*
* The International Society for Neglected Tropical Diseases, Covent Garden, london

 

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Category: Public health

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