Dengue prevention and control methods have been strengthened in recent years, with increased community awareness and participation, improved surveillance and reporting mechanisms, and greater investment from government and philanthropic funders in innovations such as the World Mosquito Program’s Wolbachia method.

However, there is still a long road ahead to eliminate global dengue outbreaks, and the complexity of this disease means we need to improve our collective efforts to proactively address this disease burden, which is endemic in many countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region.

The World Mosquito Program participates in the annual ASEAN Dengue Day, a collective advocacy event that highlights innovative and effective strategies in the prevention and control of dengue. The theme for ASEAN Dengue Day 2018 was ‘One ASEAN Community Against Dengue’, to acknowledge that dengue prevention and control needs a multi-pronged approach.

Of the 10 ASEAN member states, the World Mosquito Program is collaborating with local universities, researchers, government agencies and communities in Indonesia and Vietnam to implement our Wolbachia innovation that helps to protect local communities from mosquito-borne diseases.

Dengue was first reported in two of Indonesia’s 29 provinces in 1968 and is now endemic in many large cities and small towns. Following encouraging results from four small trials in Yogyakarta, we are working closely with government, health authorities and local communities to undertake a large-scale efficacy study to evaluate the impact of our Wolbachia method on dengue transmission, which is the first of its kind conducted globally.

The first outbreak of dengue was recorded in Vietnam in 1963, with more than 1 million cases reported between 1998 and 2010. Today, dengue is endemic throughout the southern region and central coast, and in densely populated hubs such as Hanoi. The World Mosquito Program established its project in Vietnam in 2006 and currently, our team are releasing Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes in eight villages in Vinh Luong, a community north of Nha Trang.