ABSTRACT
Mosquito-borne diseases are among the most significant challenges facing societies around the world. In Brazil, current official epidemiological reports show increasing numbers of cases of mosquito-borne diseases, such as chikungunya, dengue, yellow fever and Zika, which are spreading to new areas of the country. Therefore, it can be stated that current methods used for the management of mosquito vectors in Brazil, established since 2002, have been ineffective. Thus, there is a necessity for readjustment or updating of the Aedes aegypti control programmes that are being applied in Brazil. As recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), the best way to combat these pathogen vectors is an integrated approach where several convenient and compatible control techniques are combined to efficiently reduce or potentially eliminate a targeted insect vector population. In this manuscript, we updated a review published in 2015 by the same authors about Aedes control programmes in Brazil showing their basic concept and the principal components of Aedes integrated control programmes. Strategies such as public education, community engagement and responsibility; mechanical elimination of mosquito breeding habitats; the use of larvicides and adulticides; massive collection of eggs and adults using traps; and the reduction in the vector population through the promotion of sterility of mosquitoes by ionizing radiation, use of symbiont bacteria such as Wolbachia, or genetic modification, are discussed. The Brazilian experience to test and evaluate some of these technologies is described and compared with strategies to prevent and manage mosquito populations in other countries. It is concluded that there are new control methods that can be integrated on an area-wide basis to suppress mosquito populations successfully. Nevertheless, epidemiological studies are also needed to evaluate their impact on disease transmission, in addition to the proof-of-concept that they suppress mosquito populations.
