| Environment Management |
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The high profile of environmental issues has awakened us to the ecological dangers of global warming, pollution, destruction of tropical rainforests, overpopulation and damming of rivers. The adverse health effects of these environmental changes are often cited but have not been as well documented. Changes in ecological habitats and environmental changes have lead to resurgence of vector - borne diseases. Importance of environmental management for vector control has been recently recognized. Vector control methods are traditionally divided into:
This distinction is also reflected in certain financial and economic aspects. Environmental management for vector control is an umbrella term for “the planning, organization, carrying out and monitoring of activities for the modification and/or manipulation of environmental factors or their interaction with man with a view to preventing or minimizing vector propagation and reducing man-vector-pathogen contact”. For the control of vectors of disease the adoption of environmental management is, therefore, imperative. The physical methods like drainage of excess and waste water, making water unsuitable for vector breeding by adopting various indigenous methods in vogue, the intra and inter-sectoral coordination and community based activities are identified as the basic approaches for achieving this goal. In 1979, the WHO Expert Committee on Vector Biology and Control defined three categories of environmental management for vector control which are as follows:
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