Topic: Controlling Biting-Insect Populations
Country: Serbia
Delegate Name: Mason Kluemper
School: Fishers High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Serbia position papers GLIMUN 2015 committees
The Republic of Serbia faces many different challenges in regard to the diseases caused by biting insects such as the mosquito, or non-insectoid animals in the rang of the category of “bug,” such as ticks, however, the most common ailments are caused by mosquitoes. Some diseases that are transmitted by a vector are Dengue Fever, malaria, and yellow fever, as well as a few cases of cutaneous Leishmaniasis from the bite of the sandfly. After the recent flooding in Serbia, it became a condition favorable for the breeding of mosquitoes, and there was a scare concerning the spread of West Nile Virus. This rumor was eventually proven to be false, however. In any case, the resulting scare helped raise awareness of the various ways in which a biting insect population could be dealt with in order to not riddle a population with any vector-borne diseases.
The Republic of Serbia, in the past, utilized one of the most effective preventative measures in the form of the mosquito net, which the WHO can easily provide at a relatively low price of $2.50 per net. However, ITNs, or Insecticide-Treated nets, or LLIN, or Long Lasting Insecticidal nets, have been found to be much more effective than untreated nets. An ITN on average is 70% more effective than an untreated net, but require retreating every 6 months to continue its effectiveness. Thus, LLINs have mostly replaced the ITNs in most places.
With the effectiveness of these nets, the resulting downward spike in vector-borne diseases is plain to see. Serbia would like to see more countries with problems surrounding these diseases taking up more of these useful measures. The MediLabSecure is an organization funded by the EU in order to try and help prevent these type of diseases form spreading, and transferring funds towards MediLabSecure would be a valuable way of lowering the overall mortality rate of the diseases spread by vectors by order of prevention. The Republic of Serbia strongly suggests that members of the WHO not included within the EU transfer funds towards the organization in order to assist the countries MediLabSecure oversees and the member states for which the organization is funded by. The beneficiaries of this organizations are as follows: Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Egypt, Georgia, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Palestine, The Republic of Macedonia, Tunisia, Turkey, and Ukraine. Any nation states that are not included in this list and are members of the WHO are strongly urged by The Republic of Serbia to become a beneficiary of MediLabSecure.
References
http://www.medilabsecure.com/countries.html
http://www.indexmundi.com/serbia/major_infectious_diseases.html
