Social Sustainability

Vector Control

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Definition

Vector control is the set of methods used to limit the transmission of pathogens by controlling the animals that carry them — above all mosquitoes (malaria, dengue, Zika), but also ticks, sandflies, triatomine bugs and snails. Core tools include insecticide-treated bed nets, indoor residual spraying, larviciding and environmental management, with newer approaches — Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes, sterile insect technique, gene drive research — responding to spreading insecticide resistance.

References

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This reference provides supporting context for how “Vector Control” is defined and used.

Overview

How it is used

The discipline structures malaria and dengue programmes, climate-health early warning, urban sanitation policy, and environmental health assessment of water projects (which can create vector habitat).

Why it matters

Vectors are how climate change enters the bloodstream; vector control is the front line of that frontier.