People once call back mosquito , and the disease they carry , could be controlled using insect powder like DDT . Unfortunately , besides the environmental consequences , resistancespread rapidly and the mosquitoes were back as legion as ever . In recent years , we ’ve been investigating a miscellanea of voguish approach , 1 that might actually provide long - term protection against disease . For the first time , a large - scale trial of a next - contemporaries technique has process , offer the potential to unblock the world from dengue , chicken fever , and zika .
TheWolbachiabacterium infects a wide variety of louse , mosquitoes included . It comes in many unlike strains , a handful of which have holding that prevent the development , and therefore contagion , of viruses . Twenty - five year ago , while still a student , Monash University’sProfessor Scott O’Neillproposed that if we could get the good strain ofWolbachiaintodisease - carryingmosquito population , we might have a lasting solvent .
After extensive lab examination for suitable strains , numerous test have been conduct , many still in progress . Someshow promisebut have been quite small-scale , with serious question chump over whether they could protect intact city .
Now , however , the World Mosquito Program , lead by O’Neill , have announce winner in eliminating dengue pyrexia from Townsville , northerly Australia ’s largest urban center . Aedes aegyptimosquitoes , the elementary dengue carrier , were infected with the wMelWolbachiastrain in science laboratory in Melbourne and Townsville . They were multiply for three genesis , before being released at lots of known mosquito breeding land site , where they bred with natives spreading the bacteria .
In the four years since the trial begin , only four mass have contracted dengue in Townsville , despite 51 hoi polloi acquiring the disease elsewhere before traveling there , potentially spreading the disease if burn by local mosquitoes . antecedently , every similar distance period this 100 had at least 54 topically acquired compositor’s case and an average of 98 , note a composition onGates Open Research . At least three of the four cases were win before the release programme was complete .
O’Neill told IFLScience that trial are underway in much larger and more dengue fever - prone metropolis , including Rio de Janeiro and Yogyakarta , but it will be about 18 calendar month before final result are in . Meanwhile , the Townsville determination are make optimism . So far , he said , Wolbachiahas been maintain even in areas where releases were done seven year ago .
The technique stand in contrast with another recent experimentation in the same surface area , where male mosquitoes were sterilized using a differentWolbachiastrainand released into the environment . This result in an 80 percentage decrement in numbers ofA. aegyptimosquitoes , but the program require frequent repetition or the population will recoil back .
The two approaches are compatible O’Neill tell apart IFLScience : uninventive releases do n’t affect wMel assiduity where it is already present .
O’Neill ’s work does n’t free people from the flying blood - suckers but leave a breakbone fever - blockingWolbachiastrain that should last years or decennary , so the $ 12 per foreland monetary value for Townsville resident physician will not need to be repeated .
“ It lay the foundation for future deployment in larger cities , globally , where we ’re targeting a concentrate monetary value of US$ 1 per person , " O’Neill said in astatement .
Dengue is responsible for for less than 2 percent of the mosquito - induct deaths in the world , most of which are from malaria . However , it causes horrific pain , hospitalizing half a million people a year , and can leave the great unwashed ineffectual to work for weeks , with devastating upshot on struggling family . Although its mechanism is not well understood , wMel has also been found to block the viruses for xanthous fewer , zika , and chikungunya .
O’Neill told IFLScience other teams are investigating usingWolbachiato stop the malaria parasite . This research shows advancement , he said , but is far more complex and further from widespread app program .
