Fleas are of great importance as vectors of disease in many parts of the world. Public health workers are most concerned with fleas that carry the organisms of bubonic plague and murine typhus from rats to man and those that transmit plague among wild rodents and occasionally to man. Many people are concerned with fleas that attack domestic animals, serve as intermediate hosts for some species of dog and rodent tapeworms, as vectors of Salmonella bacteria, the bacteria causing tularemia. Public health workers should be familiar with the species that attack man, domestic animals, rats, wild mammals, their habits and life histories, in order to apply the most effective control methods, and the most effective insecticides to control these insects.

The second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century witnessed important changes in ecology, climate and human behaviour that favoured the development of urban pests. Most alarmingly, urban planners now face the dramatic expansion of urban sprawl, in which city suburbs are growing into the natural habitats of ticks, rodents and other pests. Also, many city managers now erroneously assume that pest-borne diseases are relics of the past. All these changes make timely a new analysis of the direct and indirect effects of present-day urban pests on health. Such an analysis should lead to the development of strategies to manage them and reduce the risk of exposure. To this end, WHO invited international experts in various fields - pests, pest-related diseases and pest management - to provide evidence on which to base policies. These experts identified the public health risk posed by various pests and appropriate measures to prevent and control them. This book presents their conclusions and formulates policy options for all levels of decision-making to manage pests and pest-related diseases in the future. [Ed.]