Urban planning and vector control in Southeast Asian cities.

A large and growing proportion of the population in many Southeast Asian cities live in slums and squatter settlements and they suffer from excessive exposure to insect and rodent vectors which transmit disease from one host to another. In such settlements, the quality of life, which is poor anyway, is made even worse by the high incidence of vector-borne diseases. Vector proliferation in high-density, low-income urban settlements is the consequence of a number of factors, such as lack of adequate housing, water supply, sanitation, drainage, and solid waste management facilities. There is an urgent need to rethink intersectoral and integrated approaches to the design and planning of healthy urban environments, covering such matters as basic infrastructure and services, urban land use planning and waste management, health-promoting housing and architecture, and the control of all other factors that determine human health and well-being. With cooperation between and among the communities, local governments, and nongovernmental organizations as the basis, the installation of low-cost sanitation and drainage systems, the organization of collection services for the disposal of garbage, the provision of house screening and other protective measures, and the removal of breeding sites can greatly reduce the threat of most urban vectors.