Health Equity Approach to Vector Control

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2023

​Mosquitoes are the deadliest creatures in the world, killing approximately 700,000 people annually by transmitting diseases such as malaria, West Nile, St. Louis Encephalitis, Western Equine Encephalitis, and Zika. San Bernardino County’s Mosquito and Vector Control Program (MVCP) is charged with protecting the public from mosquito-borne diseases and provides service to 11 cities and nearly all the unincorporated areas in the County. MVCP routinely checks potential mosquito breeding water sources and takes measures to prevent it. MVCP also mitigates mosquito breeding through residential service calls. These are important because it allows homeowners/tenants to provide insight to their property and neighborhood, thus giving MVCP a better perspective on how to protect the residents and their neighbors. Upon review of the residential service call data, MVCP found that majority of the requests were coming from affluent areas of the County, ones with a higher Health Places Index (HPI). The higher the HPI, the better the social conditions are that drive health (i.e., clean air, water, education, life expectancy, etc.). MVCP saw an opportunity to improve health outcomes in low HPI areas, and in April 2022, launched a Health Equity Approach to Vector Control focused in the lowest quartile of the HPI.