Insecticides are the most important preventive instrument against malaria, fever and filariasis. Still for yellow fever, where a vaccine exists, insecticides are still needed to control common crashes.

Characteristics that make good public health insecticides (PHIs) are not necessarily shared by modern agricultural or industrial insecticides. For example, DDT (Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane) was dropped as an agrochemical in the 1970s because it biodegrades slowly and accumulates in biological systemswhen widely used in agriculture.

But its persistence makes it a powerful PI. When it is sprinkled inside houses, DDT protects all the inhabitants of the malaria for approximately a year. Still in places where mosquitos are resistant to toxic actions of DDT, dissuades mosquitos of coming into houses sprinkled with the chemical substance.

Insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) primarily protect only the people sleeping under them and are less effective than generally assumed because ITN distribution does not equate with consistent use. And while the mass distribution of ITNs has undoubtedlysaved thousands of lives, mosquitoes are becoming increasingly resistant to the insecticides used on them, partly because the same chemicals are used in farming. Recent studies have identified growing resistance in Benin and Uganda, where free net distribution has occurred for a decade.

We urgently need new insecticides that combine repellency and persistence with strong binding properties and absence of toxicity for humans and the enviorment (for use with ITNs).

Link to image: 1.BP, Passion Center Malawi

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