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Vector Control
Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
Adal Medical University
Ahmed Mohamed Barkat( BSc, BU---, MSc, AAU, PhD candidate. )
Department of Public Health
E-mail: ahmed.epi282@gmail.com
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
Objectives
At the end of this unit the student is expected to:
• Introduction
• History of vector control
• What is a vector?
• Type of vectors
• Vector borne diseases
• Aims of vector control
• Early control programmers
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Introduction
Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
Vector-borne infections, diseases caused by
pathogens transmitted by insects and ticks, have
long impacted human affairs
The Black Death, killer of tens of millions
worldwide is the work of a tiny flea vectoring the
bacilli that cause bubonic plague from rats to
people.
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
Introduction
Vector-borne infections today is
responsible for filling the hospitals of sub-
Saharan Africa with malaria victims,
Can reach epidemic form very quickly.
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
What is a vector?
Is an insect or any animal that
transmits a disease to other animals
or humans. Eg. Mosquitoes, tsetse,
ticks, lice, fleas, etc.
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
What is a vector?
These vectors can carry infective pathogens
such as viruses, bacteria, and protozoa,
which can be transferred from one host
(carrier) to another
Many of these vectors are bloodsucking
insects, which ingest disease-producing
microorganisms during a blood meal from
an infected host (human or animal) and
later transmit it into a new host.
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
Cont...
• Not all are harmful - majority useful or neutral
• Those affecting man & animals –only make a
small proportion
• 1018 individual insects known to exist – 200
million for each person.
• Fortunately , only few species feed on blood.
• The few blood sucking insects/arthropods
considerably affect human & animal
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
Beneficial Insects
Pollination of many flowering plants
Decomposition of organic materials
Control of populations of harmful
invertebrates including other insects
Direct production of foods as honey
Manufacture of products as silk.
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
Insect Pests – 10,000 species
Damage Crops
Household Pests
Parasites
Vectors
Biting and Stinging Insects
Prey on domestic animals
Eat human food, clothing & possessions
Destroy trees, wood, paper
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
History of vector control
• 323 BC: Alexander the Great dies, very likely of malaria.
• AD 71-79: When invading Scotland, the Roman army loses
over 40,000 men, more than half the soldiers, to malaria
• 1647-1650: Yellow fever is brought from Africa to
Barbados on the slave ships. Wealthy white settlers on the
island have no immunity to the disease. Six thousand of
them die during an outbreak lasting several years
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
History of vector control
• 1802: The French send 29,000 soldiers and sailors to
regain Haiti. Only 6,000 return, defeated. The Haitians
have immunity to yellow fever, while the French do not.
French losses caused by yellow fever outnumber those
caused by warfare
• 1830s-1880s: Europeans begin to associate good health
with cleanliness.
• No one know the connection b/w mosquitoes and disease.
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
History of vector control
• 1897: Young British scientist Ronald Ross is the first person to
demonstrate that the malaria parasite enters the human blood
stream through a mosquito bite. The mosquito is not just an
insect; it is a vector of disease.
• 1900: Following Ross’s discovery entomologists worldwide
begin to plot military style attacks on the mosquito. One of the
most aggressive and successful campaigns takes place in New
Jersey, USA under the command of a man called John Smith.
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
History of vector control
• 1930: In Brazil, entomologist Raymond C. Shannon finds a
mosquito - Anopheles gambiae - a malaria vector. It probably
arrived from West Africa on a destroyer ship used to deliver
mail.
• 1943: DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-tichloroethane) is invented. An
insecticide used initially to de-louse prisoners and refugees of
World War II and therefore fight typhus outbreaks, the
eradication of mosquitoes becomes a real possibility. The battle
against malaria is declared almost won.
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
History of vector control
• 1958: DDT is shipped to countries in the Southern
hemisphere struggling with mosquito-borne disease. Time
is of the essence as mosquitoes develop resistance to DDT
quickly.
• 1962: US scientist, Rachel Carson publishes Silent
Spring; a powerfully written book arguing that DDT is not
safe. The reaction is immediate in several US states: DDT is
banned. A nation-wide ban follows ten years later.
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
Types of vectors
Mechanical vectors
Transmit pathogens by transporting them on their feet or
mouthparts. Eg. Housefly and cockroach.
Biological vectors
These vectors are involved in the life-cycle of parasite /
arbovirus which must pass through the vector in order to
mature to an effective stage capable of being transmitted to
human or animal host when a vector takes a blood meal.
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
Modes of Biological Transmission
1. Propagative mode
2. Cyclo-propagative
3. Cyclo-developmental
4. Transovarian mode
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
Vector borne diseases
Vector Disease Causative
agent
1-Anopheles malaria Plasmodium ov, fl, viv,
sp. mal, knowlesi
2-Culex Lymphatic filariasis, Filarial worms
Japanese encephalitis, viruses
other viral diseases
3-Aedes Yellow fever, dengue, Viruses
dengue haemorrhagic
fever, other viral diseases, Filarial worms
lymphatic filariasis
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
Vector borne diseases
4-Tsetse flies African Trypanosome
(Glossina) sleeping sp.
sickness
5-Black flies River blindness Onchocerca
(Simulium) (onchocerciasis), volvulus
mansonellosis
(usually Filarial worms
symptomless)
6-Sand flies Leishmaniasis, Leishmania sp.
(Phlebotomus, sandfly fever
Lutzomyia)
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Mosquito
Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
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Aedes
Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
Anopheles
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
Culex
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
Black flies
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
Adult Glossina (Tsetses f)
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Sand fly
Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
House fly
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
Horse fly
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
Fleas
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
lice
2-4 days
1
2
3
--------------------in 3 weeks time to adult--------------------------
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
Triatomine bugs
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
Cockroaches
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
Elephantasis
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
Lymphatic filariasis
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
Onchocercasis
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
leishmaniasis
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
African Sleeping sickness
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
Aims of vector control:
The purpose of vector control is to limit contact
between humans and vectors, and to reduce
vector populations or their life expectancy so
that they are unable to transmit disease.
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
Early control programmers included:
1. Screening of houses.
2. Use of mosquito nets.
3. Drainage or filling of swamps and other
water bodies used by insects for breeding.
4. Application of oil or Paris green to breeding
places.
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Mosquito Nets
Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
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Drainage
Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
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Environmental Management
Instructor: Ahmed M B (
MSc)
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Instructor: Ahmed M B (
Vector control methods suitable for community
MSc)
involvement should be:
1. Effective.
2. Affordable and cheap.
3. Use equipment and materials that can be
obtained locally.
4. Simple to understand and apply.
5. Acceptable and compatible with local custom.
6. Safe to the human and the environment.
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Instructor: Ahmed M B
(MSc)
you.
Thank Thank
you.
