Dengue fever cut by 77% in groundbreaking mosquito trial

 Results of the three-year study offer hope in the global battle against an illness that sickens millions annually.

Dengue fever infections dropped dramatically in an Indonesian study where a bacteria was introduced into disease-carrying mosquitoes, offering hope in the battle against an illness that sickens millions annually around the world.

Results of the three-year study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine this week, found that infecting dengue-carrying mosquitoes with a harmless bacteria called Wolbachia led to a 77 percent drop in human cases.

Infections requiring hospitalisation also fell by 86 percent in Wolbachia-treated areas of Yogyakarta, a city on Java island where the experiment was conducted, researchers said.

The study was conducted by the World Mosquito Program at Monash University in Australia and Indonesia’s Gadjah Mada University.

“The 77 percent figure is honestly quite fantastic for a transmittable disease and we’re very grateful with the result,” said Adi Utarini, a public-health researcher from Gadjah Mada University who was a co-lead on the study.

The trial involved releasing Wolbachia into the mosquito population across specific parts of Yogyakarta to measure how it affected the incidence of infections among three to 45-year-olds.