Integrated vector management and sterile insect/genetic methods of vector control

Full text: Malaria and other vector-borne diseases are major contributors to the total global burden of disease and a significant impediment to socioeconomic development in resource poor countries. Although vector control has a proven record of saving lives by preventing, reducing or eliminating transmission, its benefits are far from being fully realised. To be effective, vector control requires collaboration between the health sector and various other sectors, particularly agriculture and development programmes, together with other public and private agencies and institutions. An Integrated Vector Management (IVM) approach emphasizes the considered and systematic application of a range of interventions, often in combination and synergistically. For insect vectors of human disease, the successful operational deployment of the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) and other genetic methods of control will almost certainly depend on their integration within an IVM framework. Indeed, it is likely that for many vectors, such methods can only be employed if vector population sizes are first reduced using other more conventional approaches, for example insecticides and/or environmental measures. The World Health Organization has recently commenced to roll out its global strategy for IVM. It is clear that IVM can only succeed if there is an interagency approach to vector control. This is therefore an opportune moment to consider how the IAEA initiative for area-wide control and the integration of SIT and related genetic methods fits with such an approach. The talk will identify key elements of an IVM strategy and consider how these help to maximise the benefits from implementation of SIT and related control technologies for vectors. The role of insectoral approaches, as exemplified by the systems-wide initiative on malaria in agriculture (SIMA) and the work of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), will be considered in relation to the possible methods arising out of the IAEA initiative. (author)