Urban Ecology and the Effectiveness of Aedes Control

Wladimir J. Alonso, Benjamin McCormick

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

Past initiatives to control Aedes mosquitoes were successful, in part because they implemented draconian top-down control programs. To achieve similar results now, explicit recognition of the complexity in urban ecologies in terms of land ownership, law enforcement and accessibility for control interventions are required. By combining these attributes, four classes of spaces, along with corresponding control strategies, are suggested to better target Aedes species population control efforts. On one end of the spectrum there are accessible and accountable spaces (e.g. backyards and closely managed public facilities), where interventions can rely predominantly on bottom-up strategies with the local population playing the principle role in the implementation of actions, but with government coordination. On the other end of the spectrum are inaccessible and unaccountable spaces, which require top-down and extensive approaches. By identifying these and the intermediate classes of space, government and private resources can be allocated in a more efficient customized manner. Based on this new framework, a set of actions is proposed that might be implemented in dengue and other Aedes-borne crises. The framework considers existing limitations and opportunities associated with modern societies–which are fundamentally different from those associated with the successful control of Aedes species in the past
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationDengue Fever-a Resilient Threat in the Face of Innovation
EditorsJorge Abelardo Falcón-Lezama, Miguel Betancourt-Cravioto, Roberto Tapia-Conyer
PublisherInTech
Chapter5
ISBN (Print)978-1-78984-999-8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 Nov 2018

Bibliographical note

We are grateful to the support of the Fogarty International Center and the helpful comments of Drs. Paul Reiter, Oliver Brady, Ellis Mackenzie, Joshua Rosenthal, Gerardo Ulibarri, Yifen Liu and Prof. Chwan-Chuen King. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology or University of São Paulo

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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