Published date: 15 Dec 2020
Well there are a few…
Here are some pictures that capture some our achievements throughout the most challenging year imaginable.
Yogya
The results from our randomised controlled trial in Yogyakarta was the culmination of a decade working in the region. The trial itself took more than three years to carry out, the design of which is considered a gold-standard method for evaluating the efficacy of any health intervention. A 77% reduction in dengue incidence in treated areas within the trial is an incredible result. One that will see us proceed with great confidence across the city of Yogyakarta and in other high-density urban environments globally.
Colombo
A new project in a new city in a new country. The response from the community to the implementation of our pilot program in Colombo, Sri Lanka has been overwhelmingly positive. In a country where dengue has emerged as a major public health concern, our method is welcomed as a much needed solution. Here the WMP tuk tuk is backed by a local marching band to help spread the word about our arrival.
Niterói
Our teams in Brazil enjoy a productive and rewarding relationship with schools – helping build awareness around mosquitoes and our intervention in classrooms across Rio and Niterói. Here, a future genius gets up close and personal with some mosquito larvae with guidance from one of our field entomologists.
La Paz
La Paz, Mexico is a lively and intriguing place with the climate of a desert. Super hot with very little rainfall, it’s one of the more challenging environments in which to implement our method. Mexico also felt the full heat from the pandemic. Yet somehow, after successful pilots last year, 2020 saw the project expand to city-wide releases.
Indonesia
All of our project sites have been impacted by the pandemic with an organisation-wide pause in operations implemented earlier in the year for several months. During this period, some of our staff and labs were employed to help protect their communities against the spread of COVID-19. This is our lab in Yogyakarta where staff and volunteers worked long hours examining swab samples of patients suspected of having contracted the virus.
Ho Chi Minh City
Look familiar? Despite everything, the show must go on. These Brady Bunch style meetings became the norm in a year that we can safely say has been anything but. Here’s to meeting in person, reuniting with our communities and releasing more mosquitoes to protect more people in 2021.
Prof Uut
Our science lead in Yogyakarta, Adi Utarini had a year marked by triumph and tragedy. She and her teams celebrated the RCT result mentioned at the top of the page before she sadly lost her husband to COVID-19. Her contribution to the program and to scientific progress was acknowledged in the science journal Nature's Ten people who helped shaped science in 2020.
Like most organisations, communities and individuals across the planet, the disruption caused by the global pandemic will be felt for some time to come. But the COVID impact has also compelled us to learn a few things about ourselves. We all learnt new ways of doing things. We learnt that we are resilient and adaptable as a unit stretched across several continents. And we learnt that our ambition to protect communities from communicable disease is more pertinent now than ever.
