Insecticide Resistance in Insect Vectors of Disease with Special Reference to Mosquitoes: A Potential Threat to Global Public Health

Abstract

Arthropod-borne diseases are remaining as a major public health issue in the resource-constrained settings. Mosquitoes are closely associated with mankind since time immemorial and play an important role in the transmission of many dreadful diseases like malaria, filariasis, Japanese encephalitis, dengue and yellow fever. Over the decades, vector control is an important element to minimize the vector-borne disease burden worldwide and in fact, it heavily relies upon synthetic insecticides as a mainstay. However the overuse and misuse of insecticides have led to the emergence of resistance, which undermines the potentiality of vector control. Evidence Acquisition: In order to pursue effective research pertained to this issue, a detailed search on Scopus, Medline, Google Scholar and academic premier databases has been conducted between the time periods of 1955 and 2012. Results: Over the past six decades, insecticides are serving as one of the important arsenals in the fight against vector-borne diseases to save hundreds of millions of lives. Consequently, in the last decade we have attained a remarkable success to combat with many diseases particularly malaria due to the combined effect of indoor residual spraying (IRS) and long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs). Currently, malaria mortality rates have drastically fallen by more than 25% globally, 33% in sub-Saharan Africa and over a million lives have been saved attributable to massive scale-up of LLINs and IRS. Since, both LLINs and IRS are cost-effective and robust form of interventions; they are serving as a central pillar in the National Malaria Control Programmes (NMCPs) of malaria endemic countries. Nevertheless, LLINs are easy-to-deliver, most economical and practical even in the resource-poor settings, where implementation of IRS is not feasible. The heavy reliance, recurrent and inappropriate insecticide applications are key sources for resistance which is a potential threat to the global public health. Therefore, it has to be addressed immediately to sustain the recent success of vector control, unless otherwise it would become uncertain. Conclusions: Though, development of resistance is an evolutionary phenomenon, it can be tackled judiciously by implementing appropriate and comprehensive resistance monitoring and management strategies within the framework of integrated vector management. This scrutiny recommends the following measures; (i) identification of effective novel tools for monitoring and evaluation, (ii) searching for alternative interventions to minimize the further resistance evolution as well as to preserve the efficiency of existing insecticides, (iii) exploration of next generation vector control tools in terms of nets and new classes of non-pyrethroid insecticide formulation with new mode of action, (iv) building partnership by bringing together the people actively engaged in the vector control, like public health experts, policy-makers, researchers, medical entomologists and insecticide manufacturers, could ideally pave the way to col...

Research on Mosquitocidal Properties of Plants: A Call for Enduring Collaborative Bridge between the Scientific Laboratories and the Society

“…Vector control strategies rely heavily on use of synthetic insecticides [24], particularly pyrethroids through Insecticide-Treated Nets (ITNs) and Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) as a mainstay. Besides, larvicides are also used to eliminate larvae stages in the breeding sites, whereas repellents are applied to drive-away mosquitoes from the source in order to minimize the man-vectorcontact.…”

“…; organochlorines, organophosphates, carbamates and pyrethroids [25]. reported in widerange of settings and therefore it is regarded as a potential threat to the global public health [24]. It makes the existing insecticides feckless and limits the available mosquito control options [26].…”

Optimizing Strategic Insecticide Resistance Management Planning in Malaria Vectors

“…Insecticide resistance has been perceived to have the potential to undermine efforts to control vector-borne diseases including malaria [151,152]. However, the impact of resistance on the ability of malaria control intervention to reduce disease transmission is poorly understood [153].…”

Larvicidal efficacy of Scabiosa arenaria Forssk. (Dipsacaceae) organs extracts against Culex pipiens L.

“…The pyrethroids are nowadays the most extensive insecticides for the indoor fight against mosquito adults A RT I C L E I N F O A B S T R AC T while organophosphate insecticides are commonly utilized in the mosquito reproduction sites as larvicides [9,10]. Nevertheless, these conventional insecticides have not been absolutely successful due to augmentation resistance developed by numerous mosquito species [11], and also side effects on the environment and public health. This represents a major obstacle encountered in effective control programs [12].…”