ABSTRACT
Human suffering from pest-carried diseases has been, and continues to be, considerable, and the key means of alleviating this suffering has been through the chemical control of the pests. The use of DDT around human dwellings in the late 1950s and 1960s rapidly killed all mosquitoes that came into contact with it, and virtually eliminated the disease in all areas in which it was used. After malaria, schistosomiasis is widely believed to be the most significant parasitic disease of humans, affecting between 200 and 250 million people a year in tropical regions. Dengue fever and the related dengue haemorrhagic fever are also mosquito-borne diseases. WHOPES in 1982 took over this role from the WHO Pesticide Evaluation Programme, which had screened over 2000 chemicals since its inception in 1960. There are WHO expert committees on: malaria, schistosomiasis, filariasis, onchocerciasis, trypanosomiasis, and leishmaniasis, which serve to collate recent advances in understanding and controlling the diseases.
