Topic: Controlling Biting-Insect Populations
Country: Russia
Delegate Name: Olivia Decker
School: Royal Oak High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Russia position papers GLIMUN 2015 committees
Controlling biting insect populations is an important issue around the globe. Certain biting insects (i.e. mosquitoes) can cause the spread of fatal diseases, such as malaria. Although controlling these insect populations is not as pressing of a topic for Russia, we still view it as a very serious problem that must be addressed, as it is critical for some countries.
Fortunately, there is a very plausible solution to this issue-making resistance proof insecticides for malaria control. To understand how this will work, we first must understand malaria in mosquitoes. The way that malarial developmental stages work is that only mosquitos that are late in their life are able to transmit malaria to humans.
When the current forms of insecticide are used, they kill mosquitoes before they are able to breed, therefore the mosquitoes develop a resistance to the insecticide. These insecticides also kill the mosquitoes before they are even able to transmit the disease, and because the mosquitoes develop a resistance, the insecticides are only effective for a little while.
So the solution is to create a compound that is disproportionately effective against mosquitoes with advanced malaria infections. This way, the mosquitoes will still be allowed to breed, therefore they will not develop a resistance to the insecticide, and the compound will also kill off the mosquitoes that can transmit the malaria virus to humans. With the assumption that late life acting (LLA) insecticides have no impact on total mosquito densities or the proportion of humans that are infectious, the number of infectious bites will be reduced by 99.2%. Corresponding figures for LLA insecticides that kill slightly later in life are 97.9% and 94.2%.
Russia finds these figures very promising, especially seeing as they are minimums. We have strong hopes that throughout committee we will find a great solution to controlling biting insect populations, and in the process reduce infectious diseases across the globe.
