Wolbachia

Indonesia Study Offers Hope In Dengue Fever Battle

Dengue fever infections dropped dramatically in an Indonesian study where a type of 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

13 June 2021
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Mosquito Trials Raise Hopes Of Defeating Dengue

Hundreds dead in the Philippines; a threefold increase of cases in Vietnam; hospitals overrun in Malaysia, Myanmar and Cambodia – dengue is ravaging Southeast Asia this year due in part to rising temperatures and low immunity to new strains.But one group of scientists is rolling out trials to breed dengue-resistant bugs in a bid to tackle one of the world’s leading mosquito-borne illnesses, raising hopes the untreatable disease can finally be beaten.The World Mosquito Program (WMP) has pionee

12 September 2019
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AI takes aim at mosquitoes

The war against mosquito-borne diseases has found a new ally in artificial intelligence (AI). An ambitious project by Google’s sister company, Verily, plans to literally “debug” the problem. Its Debug project aims to reduce Aedes aegypti mosquito populations drastically and thereby the incidence of diseases like dengue, Zika, yellow fever and chikungunya.Most of these diseases have no effective treatments or vaccines.

29 September 2018
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