Vector borne diseases continue to affect many countries or have staged a slow, yet steady re-emergence in many others, or new vector species are detected. Consequently, many countries and institutions that had previously controlled or eradicated them have witnessed a resurgence in their activities and concomitant rise on their toll on human and animal health and a significant impact on their economies. This has forced many countries and organizations to allocate significant portions of their limited public health resources to vector population suppression.
The surge in vector activity can be attributed to one or more of a long list of factors too complicated for a few lines of text. Regardless of the reasons, it is evident that the situation will continue to deteriorate if no significant action is undertaken. To that effect, vector control programs are now being established in areas where none operated before, re-furbished or revitalized where one existed, or considered for implementation in countries where none operated. Unfortunately, the criteria for developing, implementing, and evaluating vector population suppression programs are often based on technology and procedures often unfamiliar or unavailable to some managers, or inappropriate because they were designed for very different parameters and environmental conditions than those specific for the implementing organization. Consequently, many of them are often activated without clear, measurable, and achievable objectives or are not based on sound vector or disease surveillance. Moreover, though strict, standardized guidelines for the use of insecticides are delineated in the insecticide labels, detailed guidelines for arthropod control operations, are not readily available.
Operational Reviews seek to solve that problem by examining the essential elements required for a comprehensive arthropod control program. Each element has key components and a scoring system. It provides program managers with a detailed and comprehensive look at their programs and helps identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats requiring attention. It provides a framework from which managers can recognize risk factors and identify potential topics that could be incorporated in an advanced, technical training program for implementation teams so that maximum utilization of available resources is achieved and a basis for financing.
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