Groundbreaking trial sees dengue fever cases slashed
Dengue fever cases have been cut by 77 per cent in a groundbreaking trial study in Indonesia that researchers hope can be expanded worldwide to dramatically reduce the impact of the potentially fatal virus. The three-year experiment in Yogyakarta, on the island of Java, tested whether infecting Aedes aegypti mosquitoes – the normal carriers of dengue – with bacteria called Wolbachia would reduce incidences of dengue among
3- to 45-year-olds. The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, show a 77 per cent fall in cases, and an 86 per cent reduction in hospitalisations in Wolbachiatreated areas, the World Mosquito Programme team that conducted the trial said.