Integrated vector management (IVM) is defined as "a rational decision-making process for the optimal use of resources for vector control" and includes five key elements: 1) evidence-based decision-making, 2) integrated approaches 3), collaboration within the health sector and with other sectors, 4) advocacy, social mobilization, and legislation, and 5) capacity-building. In 2004, the WHO adopted IVM globally for the control of all vector-borne diseases. Important recent progress has been made in developing and promoting IVM for national malaria control programmes in Africa at a time when successful malaria control programmes are scaling-up with insecticide-treated nets (ITN) and/or indoor residual spraying (IRS) coverage. While interventions using only ITNs and/or IRS successfully reduce transmission intensity and the burden of malaria in many situations, it is not clear if these interventions alone will achieve those critical low levels that result in malaria elimination. Despite the successful employment of comprehensive integrated malaria control programmes, further strengthening of vector control components through IVM is relevant, especially during the "end-game" where control is successful and further efforts are required to go from low transmission situations to sustained local and country-wide malaria elimination. To meet this need and to ensure sustainability of control efforts, malaria control programmes should strengthen their capacity to use data for decision-making with respect to evaluation of current vector control programmes, employment of additional vector control tools in conjunction with ITN/IRS tactics, case-detection and treatment strategies, and determine how much and what types of vector control and interdisciplinary input are required to achieve malaria elimination. Similarly, on a global scale, there is a need for continued research to identify and evaluate new tools for vector control that can be integrated with existing biomedical strategies within national malaria control programmes. This review provides an overview of how IVM programmes are being implemented, and provides recommendations for further development of IVM to meet the goals of national malaria control programmes in Africa.

The distribution of West Nile virus has expanded in the past 6 years to include the 48 contiguous United States and seven Canadian provinces, as well as Mexico, the Caribbean islands, and Colombia. The suggestion of the emergence of a dominant genetic variant has led to an intensive analysis of isolates made across North America. We have sequenced the pre-membrane and envelope genes of 74 isolates and the complete genomes of 25 isolates in order to determine if a dominant genotype has arisen and to better understand how the virus has evolved as its distribution has expanded. Phylogenetic analyses revealed the continued presence of genetic variants that group in a temporally and geographically dependent manner and provide evidence that a dominant variant has emerged across much of North America. The implications of these findings are discussed as they relate to transmission and spread of the virus in the Western Hemisphere.

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Larval control of Anopheles mosquitoes has long been neglected in tropical Africa due to uncertainties about its impacts on incidence and prevalence of malaria. Population models of mosquitoes are a useful tool to provide qualitative and quantitative understandings of influences of larval interventions on malaria transmission. For these purposes, we develop a new modeling framework by conceiving a quantity of the total productivity in an area, which, in turn, can be partitioned into its constituent parts from individual habitats. Three scenarios of larval interventions were evaluated in relation to impacts on parasitological indicators of malaria transmission. Our results show that it is unnecessary to manage all aquatic habitats to obtain significant reductions in incidence and prevalence of malaria in situations of low and intermediate levels of transmission. We highlight that informed larval interventions featured by identifying and targeting prolific habitats can play a critical role in combating malaria in Africa.