Control of Arthropods of Medical and Veterinary Importance

R. Pal World Health Organization Geneva SWitzerland 3 The l4th International Congress of Entomology was held at Canberra from 22 - 30 August 1972. The programme of the Congress was divided into 2l symposia and l5 sections. One of the symposia dealt with an assessment of the current status and prospects for the control of arthropods of medical and veterinary importance. Eleven papers dealing with houseflies ticks blackflies Aedes 3 3 3 aegypti and other Stegomyia species tsetse flies~ Culex tritae­ 3 niorhynchus and Culex fatigans were presented. These papers are published herein with very slight changes along with the discussions which followed. During the past 25 years~ spectacular success has been achieved in the control of vector-borne diseases such as malaria~ plague and yellow fever. This has been possible due largely to the use of DDT and other residual insecticides at a cost within the reach of developing countries where these problems Were most prevalent. Despite the remarkable successes achieved~ the recent epidemics of malaria in Ceylon~ typhus in Burundi~ plague in Viet-Nam~ and yellow fever in Ethiopia and Ghana have given rise to a sense of pessimism. This pessimism is due not only to the recrudescence of vector-borne disease in some areas~ but also to the fact that there are still no organized programmes for the control of Chagas' disease~ onchocer­ ciasis* and schistosomiasis. Thus the need for vector control~ particularly in developing countries~ remains undiminished.