Australian scientists find way of stopping dengue

Scientists in Australia have discovered a way of stopping mosquitoes carrying dengue virus, raising hopes for preventing the 50 million human cases of the disease every year, local media reported on Thursday. Groundbreaking experiments in Queensland have found a common insect bacteria, wMel Wolbachia, which can dramatically reduce the presence of dengue fever in mosquitoes. The research, led by Professor Scott O'Neill, Dean at Melbourne's Monash University, was published on Thursday in the prestigious journal, Nature. Australian researchers working on the Eliminate Dengue program aim to protect the mosquitoes themselves from dengue and so stop them transmitting the virus to humans. "What the experiments have shown is that this strain of Wolbachia when it is put into mosquitoes really reduces the ability of the (dengue) virus to grow in the mosquito and if it can't grow, then it can't get transmitted in people," O'Neill told reporters. O'Neill said while it was too early to say if the experiments heralded the end of dengue fever, it was a major step towards that goal. In the past decade, there have been 2400 cases of dengue fever reported during 36 outbreaks in Australia. Dengue fever has become endemic in tropical regions, where it is spread by a specific type of mosquito that becomes infected after biting humans with the disease. Despite millions of people being infected with dengue each year, there is currently no way of stopping its rapid spread either by vaccines or controlling mosquito populations. Further trials will be conducted in Cairns in north Queensland over the coming wet season and approval is currently being sought for trials in Thailand, Vietnam, Brazil and Indonesia that will directly determine the effectiveness of the method in reducing dengue disease in human populations, according to Monash University.