Peter A. Ryan et al., 2019, Gates Open Research

A new scientific paper has shown that the World Mosquito Program’s long-lasting Wolbachia method has stopped dengue transmission in Cairns and surrounding locations in northern Queensland, Australia.

Short-term releases of Wolbachia mosquitoes were undertaken up to 8 years ago in some communities – monitoring in these areas has shown that Wolbachia has remained in the local mosquitoes during this time, without the need for further releases. Importantly, there has been reduced dengue transmission in these areas, with a 93 per cent reduction in reported dengue cases. It follows the 5-year success of the WMP method in the city of Townsville.