Insecticide control of vector-borne diseases: when is insecticide resistance a problem?

Many of the most dangerous human diseases are transmitted by insect vectors. After decades of repeated insecticide use, all of these vector species have demonstrated the capacity to evolve resistance to insecticides. Insecticide resistance is generally considered to undermine control of vector-trans...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLoS pathogens 2010-08, Vol.6 (8), p.e1001000
Main Authors: Rivero, Ana, Vézilier, Julien, Weill, Mylène, Read, Andrew F, Gandon, Sylvain
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal biology
Animals
Communicable Disease Control - methods
Communicable Diseases - transmission
Development and progression
Disease control
Disease management
Disease transmission
Epidemiology
Evolutionary Biology/Evolutionary Ecology
Human health and pathology
Humans
Infectious diseases
Infectious Diseases/Epidemiology and Control of Infectious Diseases
Insect Vectors - drug effects
Insect Vectors - parasitology
Insect Vectors - physiology
Insecticide resistance
Insecticide Resistance - drug effects
Insecticides - pharmacology
Life Sciences
Mortality
Mosquitoes
Parasites
Review
Tropical diseases
Vector-borne diseases
Vertebrate Zoology
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Summary:Many of the most dangerous human diseases are transmitted by insect vectors. After decades of repeated insecticide use, all of these vector species have demonstrated the capacity to evolve resistance to insecticides. Insecticide resistance is generally considered to undermine control of vector-transmitted diseases because it increases the number of vectors that survive the insecticide treatment. Disease control failure, however, need not follow from vector control failure. Here, we review evidence that insecticide resistance may have an impact on the quality of vectors and, specifically, on three key determinants of parasite transmission: vector longevity, competence, and behaviour. We argue that, in some instances, insecticide resistance is likely to result in a decrease in vector longevity, a decrease in infectiousness, or in a change in behaviour, all of which will reduce the vectorial capacity of the insect. If this effect is sufficiently large, the impact of insecticide resistance on disease management may not be as detrimental as previously thought. In other instances, however, insecticide resistance may have the opposite effect, increasing the insect's vectorial capacity, which may lead to a dramatic increase in the transmission of the disease and even to a higher prevalence than in the absence of insecticides. Either way-and there may be no simple generality-the consequence of the evolution of insecticide resistance for disease ecology deserves additional attention.
ISSN:1553-7374
1553-7366
1553-7374
DOI:10.1371/journal.ppat.1001000