Integrated Vector Management

A strategy, adopted globally by the World Health Organization in 2004, for making rational, evidence based decisions about how to deploy vector control resources against every disease a mosquito or other vector transmits in a given setting, rather than running separate, uncoordinated efforts against each disease individually. Integrated vector management rests on four principles: basing decisions on local epidemiological evidence, considering every disease a vector transmits rather than only one, evaluating the full range of available vector control methods rather than defaulting to a single tool, and engaging other government sectors and affected communities rather than treating vector control as a health ministry task alone. In practice it follows a structured decision-making process, moving from a centrally conducted epidemiological and vector assessment through locally conducted analysis, method selection and resource planning, and it calls for restructuring vector control programs, redefining staff roles, building local analytical capacity, and treating vector control as a shared responsibility across the health system and beyond it, developed in response to problems such as poorly targeted spraying, missed opportunities to address multiple diseases at once, and growing insecticide resistance.