La campaña de erradicación del Aedes aegypti en las Américas : Su organización, evolución y resutados hasta diciembre de 1954

Abstract

The first part of this paper describes the three stages of the campaign based on the use of DDT against the urban yellow fever vector in the Americas, carried out since the adoption of the resolution by the Directing Council of the Pan American Sanitary Organization at Buenos Aires, September 1947. It is pointed out that Paraguay was the first country to accept PASB technical assistance, followed by Uruguay, Ecuador, Venezuela and thereafter, all the countries of Central America. As sponsor of the resolution adopted at Buenos Aires, Brazil agreed to provide the campaign against the Aedes aegypti with widely experienced experts

During the initial stage from 1948 to 1950, the system of coordinating the campaign was established, the Continent being divided into two large and important zones: one, which included the countries in the northern part of South America, Central America, and Mexico, and the other, the countries in the central and southern part of South America. In the first countries, an effort was made to speed up the work by applying DDT only as a larvicide and by spraying the substance in large areas where the malaria problem was also present. In the southern countries, along general lines, the norms established by previous experience were followed, the combat being directed against the A. aegypti only, using the so-called perifocal-DDT method adopted successfully in Brazil, ...(AU)