Table 3. Historical overview of notable vector control programmes and their effects.

Date	Location	Programme	Disease	Vector species targeted	Vector control methods implemented	Effects observed	Reference
Late 1800s	East Africa	Efforts led by colonial powers	HAT	Glossina	Bush clearance, game destruction, trapping of tsetse	Decline in tsetse populations	[24–27]
1901–1920	Malaya (now Malaysia)	Efforts led by Sir Malcolm Watson	Malaria	Anopheles umbrosus An. maculatus	Draining marshes, subsoil drainage, filling water bodies, tree clearing, relocating housing	Reduction in malaria	[28]
1901–1912	Cuba	Efforts led by Gorgas and Le Prince, taken over by local authorities after 1904	Yellow fever and malaria	Aedes aegypti An. albimanus	Yellow fever: house inspection and destruction/oiling of containers, fines if cisterns not covered, and isolation of patients with screening and netting, and fumigation of their premises Malaria: drainage, filling or oiling of standing water, ditching, cutting vegetation at edges of ponds/streams, larvivorous fish and oiling of wells, restricting animal grazing during wet season, intermittent short-duration flooding of watercress beds (versus constant flooding)	Reduction in yellow fever and malaria	[29]
1904–1913	Panama Canal	Efforts led by Gorgas and Le Prince	Yellow fever and malaria	An. albimanus An. tarsimaculata Ae. aegypti	Yellow fever: house screening, premise and container inspections, destruction or treatment of containers with oil/larvicide Malaria: house screening, clearing water bodies, draining or filling standing water, installing drains, removing jungle, larviciding using oil or Paris Green	Reduction in malaria and yellow fever	[29] [30]
1920–1935	Indonesia	‘Species sanitation’ led by N. H. Swellengrebel	Malaria	An. ludlowi (now An. sundaicus) An. aconitus An. maculatus	Environmental management, e.g., filling and draining of ponds, maintaining and flushing drains, planting trees	Reduction in malaria	[31, 32]
1930–1962	Italy	Italian antimalarial campaign ‘bonfica integrale’ under Mussolini	Malaria	An. labranchiae	Draining of Pontine marshes, house screening, community education and mobilisation, larviciding using Paris Green, clearing canals and ditches, DDT aerial spraying (after 1946)	Malaria eradication	[33–35]
1930–1942	Brazil	Cooperative Yellow Fever Service directed by Fred Soper	Yellow fever and malaria	Ae. aegypti An. gambiae	Yellow fever: container inspections, oiling/larviciding of aquatic habitats, sanitary legislation enforced by monetary fines Malaria: larviciding with Paris Green, house spraying with short-acting pyrethroids	Elimination of Ae. aegypti from many areas, reduction in yellow fever; elimination of An. gambiae from northeast Brazil	[36]
1929–1950	Copperbelt, Zambia	Roan Antelope Copper Mine and others, including Nchanga Consolidated Copper Mines, Rhokana Corporation, and Mufulira Cooper Mines	Malaria	An. gambiae An. funestus	Vegetation clearance along river and tributaries, modification of river boundaries and removal of man-made obstructions, draining flooded areas and swamps, oiling of larval habitats, and house screening	At Roan Antelope Mine, reduced malaria-related mortality and morbidity by 70%–95% within 3–5 years	[37] [38]
1933–1950	Tennessee Valley, US	TVA	Malaria	An. quadrimaculatus	Regulation of water levels in the lakes, shoreline improvements such as deepening or diking and draining, larviciding, and later (to a limited extent) house improvement, DDT aerial spraying, and IRS using DDT	Virtual malaria elimination	[39, 40]
1942–1943 (World War II)	Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands	US Navy, Malaria Control Unit ‘Cactus’	Malaria	An. farauti	Oiling of swamps, fumigation of planes and huts, relocation of plantation workers, ITNs, topical repellents, atabrine prophylaxis	Reduction in malaria cases	[41, 42]
1942–1945	Upper Egypt	Species (An. gambiae) eradication	Malaria	An. gambiae	Larviciding with Paris Green (later Malariol due to supply issues); pyrethrum house spraying; residual spraying of boats, planes, trains, automobiles with pyrethrum (later DDT)	Massive reductions in malaria cases (10,193 cases in 1942, to 59 in 1946); eradication of An. gambiae	[43]
1947–1951	Southeast USA	US National Malaria Elimination Programme	Malaria	An. quadrimaculatus An. freeborni	IRS with DDT, larviciding using Paris Green, deepening or diking and draining of water bodies, lining canals with concrete	Free of malaria as a significant public health problem in 1949	[44]
1955–1969	Worldwide	Global Malaria Elimination Programme	Malaria	Varied depending on location	IRS with DDT and other residual insecticides	Elimination from some regions, but unsuccessful elsewhere	[45, 46]
1947–1962	South and Central America and Caribbean	Pan-American Sanitary Bureau	Yellow fever	Ae. aegypti	Container inspections, oiling of aquatic habitats, later perifocal spraying of DDT in water containers and nearby walls	Vector eradicated from large parts of South America	[47, 48]
1951–1980	China	National visceral leishmaniasis control programme	VL	Phlebotomus chinensis P. longiductus P. wui P. alexandri	IRS of houses and animal shelters using DDT, and elimination or topical deltamethrin treatment of dogs	Massive reduction in case incidence from 94/100,000 in 1950 to approximately 0.03/100,000 by 1980	[49]
1950s–1970s	Peruvian Andes	Gains as a result of Global Malaria Elimination Programme	CL	Lutzomyia peruensis Lu. verrucarum Lu. ayacuchensis	IRS with DDT	Decrease in cases but resurgence once IRS was stopped	[50]
1973–1991	Botswana	Tsetse control programme	HAT	G. morsitans centralis	Aerial spraying of insecticides; deltamethrin-treated targets to stop reinvasion of tsetse	Eliminated tsetse and HAT	[25, 51]
1970s–present	Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea	Malaria Elimination Programme Pacific Programme for the Elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis (PacELF) post 1999	LF	An. farauti An. koliensis An. punctulatus	Solomon Islands: IRS using DDT Papua New Guinea: IRS with DDT, later mosquito nets (untreated), and since 2005 long-lasting ITNs	Elimination from Solomon Islands by late 1970s, and near elimination from PNG (ongoing)	[52–54]
1974–2002	West Africa	Onchocerciasis Control Programme (OCP) and to a lesser extent African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC)	Onchocerciasis	Simulium spp.	Larviciding	Near elimination of river blindness from West Africa	[55, 56]
1991–present	Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay	Southern Cone Initiative (SCI)	Chagas disease	Triatoma infestans and other species	IRS, house improvements, and community education	Decline in indoor infestation and disease incidence	[57–59]
1953–present	India, Nepal, Bangladesh	Visceral Leishmaniasis Elimination Programme–Memorandum of Understanding between countries signed 2005 (previous gains as a result of Malaria Eradication Programme)	VL	P. argentipes	IRS using DDT in homes and animal shelters	Decline in cases in 3 countries from 77,000 in 1992 to 6,000 in 2016	[60]
1915 (California)–present	US	Mosquito abatement districts	Aedes-borne diseases	Aedes and nuisance mosquitoes	Predominantly larval control	Prevention of local Aedes-borne virus transmission, e.g., no locally transmitted Zika in US states	[61]
2000–present	SSA	Campaign to eliminate HAT (numerous donors, research institutions, and implementing partners)	HAT	Glossina spp.	Screening and treatment, traps and targets (‘Tiny Targets’), insecticide-treated cattle	25,841 cases of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense HAT in 2000 to 2,110 in 2016 and from 709 Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense HAT cases in 2000 to 54 in 2016	[62]
2000–present	SSA	Scale-up of ITNs and IRS	Malaria	An. gambiae and other species	ITNs and IRS	ITNs responsible for 68% of 663 million clinical cases averted from 2000 to 2015	[63]

Abbreviations: CL, cutaneous leishmaniasis; DDT, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane; HAT, human African trypanosomiasis; IRS, indoor residual spraying; ITN, insecticide-treated bed net; LF, lymphatic filariasis; SSA, sub-Saharan Africa; TVA, Tennessee Valley Authority; VL, visceral leishmaniasis