The Mosquito Strategy that Could Eliminate Dengue
Published:15 Sep.2020 Source:Nature
Epidemiologists are typically cautious in the language they use. But “staggering” and “epochal” are some of their comments on newly released results from a trial of a biological technology that aims to stop the spread of mosquito-borne diseases.
The trial, conducted in Yogyakarta in Indonesia, showed that releasing mosquitoes modified to carry a bacterium called Wolbachia, which stops the insects from transmitting some viruses, led to a steep drop in cases of dengue fever in the city. These results are the strongest evidence yet that the Wolbachia technique, in development since the 1990s, could rid the world of some deadly mosquito-borne diseases, researchers say.