[The chemical control of disease vectors. Evaluation of new insecticides. Operational insecticides. New insecticides (author's transl)].

The chemical control of disease vectors which has been very successful during about 15 years is now faced with some difficulties due to the resistance of insects to the insecticides, to the decreasing number of candidate insecticides, to the increase of their price and to the legal restrictions concerning their safe use and their environmental inocuity. Since 1960, W.H.O. has carried out an evaluation programme to define the properties of new insecticides and to access their usefulness for public health. Through this programme several alternative insecticides have been selected and are now used in vector control operations. Although research continues on organophosphorous compounds and carbamates, it also includes the promising groups of pyrethroids and insect growth regulators. The present trend of vector control is to integrate various control techniques and to limit the use of insecticides to the control of the epidemiologically dangerous part of the vector population. This approach might prevent or delay the development of resistance.