With mosquitoes — carriers of a range of diseases — increasingly becoming resistant to insecticides, the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) has decided to evolve a common protocol to deal with the menace. It has come out with new draft guidelines for the uniform evaluation of insecticides and bio-larvicides for use in vector-control programmes throughout the country.
The integrated vector management now followed in the country has made mosquitoes that transmit diseases, ranging from malaria, filaria, dengue and chikungunya, resistant. This has led authorities to try new chemicals and in the absence of common protocol, there is a danger of mosquitoes developing resistance to newer chemicals, that will affect the environment and human health badly.
According to the draft guidelines, chemical control is decisively superior to environmental and biological control, which are not very successful in containing sudden outbreaks of vector-borne diseases. Chemical control goes the whole way, covering indoor residual sprays, larvicides, insect growth regulators; insecticide-treated nets/long-lasting insecticide nets and household insecticide formulations. The draft guidelines make it mandatory for industries to conduct both laboratory and field trials to evaluate the insecticide compounds for their bio-efficacy and effectiveness on target and non-target organisms.
The new chemical products have to be evaluated in multi-centric mode at different sites with variable ecology to check how adaptable they are. Also, only insecticides registered with the Central Insecticide Board may be used in the control programme.