Whelan PI

2007-06

In 1972 the Northern Territory Department of Health established a small Medical Entomology Branch to investigate and organise control of insects of medical importance in the Northern Territory, with an emphasis on the mosquito vectors of malaria. The Northern Territory was one of the first States or Territories to set up such a unit devoted solely to the above purpose and to have a full time medical entomologist with state wide responsibility. As a result of the 1974 Australian encephalitis outbreak, the need for research and control of mosquito borne diseases on an Australian wide basis became apparent. The Commonwealth Department of Health established financial assistance to the State and Territories in late 1974, under the Australian Encephalitis Control Program. This early assistance contributed towards the equipment and operational needs of the Medical Entomology Branch and aided the establishment of mosquito control programs in Alice Springs, Darwin, Nhulunbuy and Alyangula. The control programs in the various towns were carried out with assistance from the various local councils, corporations or mining companies, in co operation with the local departmental health surveyors or with direct assistance from the Medical Entomology Branch. The guidance of vector control operations by the various operational bodies was undertaken by the Medical Entomology Section. The process of gathering medical entomology data on a Territory wide basis was started, in order to establish vector control operations on a more scientific basis. From the beginning, with a single entomologist and a part time tearoom laboratory, the Medical Entomology Branch evolved into a distinct branch of the Northern Territory Department of Health, with a well equipped laboratory, professional and technical staff and a comprehensive vector surveillance and control program. The activities of the branch have been reported regularly in the Annual Reports of the Northern Territory Department of Health and in the MEB annual branch reports. This paper was prepared for a workshop on Vector Control organised by the National Disease Control Program in Canberra in 1987. It summarises the main elements of the Northern Territory Vector Borne Disease Control Program and highlights some of the results and achievements of this program. This paper was revised in 2007 to reflect current methods and altered situations.

1440-833X

https://hdl.handle.net/10137/195

Medical Entomology, DHCS

Northern Territory Disease Control Bulletin

Vol. 14 No. 2

Surveys

Vector control

Arboviruses

Quarantine

Suburban areas

Rural areas

Mosquito vector control in the Northern Territory

Article

Publication