NEA looking to infect Aedes mosquitoes in dengue fight

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http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/nea-looking-infect-aedes-mosquitoes-dengue-fight

For the first time, the National Environment Agency (NEA) is considering the use of biological control methods to limit the spread of dengue, by infecting male Aedes mosquitoes with a type of bacteria that results in females producing eggs that do not hatch.

The NEA’s Environmental Health Institute (EHI) has tested the use of the Wolbachia bacteria in the laboratory, but not in the field.

Wolbachia technology involves infecting Aedes mosquitoes with Wolbachia — a naturally-occurring bacterium found in more than 60 per cent of insect species. When a male Aedes mosquito carrying Wolbachia mates with a female, the eggs produced do not hatch. The aim is to reduce the Aedes population to a level where dengue transmission cannot be sustained.

A panel of experts has been set up and will convene in August to look into whether the use of the technology — which has been around since the ’60s and is being tested in Vietnam, Indonesia and Australia — is safe.

The Dengue Expert Advisory Panel consists of local and foreign experts and is led by epidemiologist and entomologist Professor Duane Gubler, founding director of the Emerging Infectious Diseases Programme at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School.

There was a record 22,170 dengue cases last year. About 7,000 cases have been reported this year, with the traditional peak period — June to October — only beginning.