Open letter to the Ministry of Health:
I reported a few months ago on a mosquito project in the Cayman Islands in which neutered "dengue mosquitoes" were released in the islands as the second part of field trials, and according to reports in the journals it was an astounding success. A previous trial was carried out in Mexico. Now we learn that Australia will be doing field trials, following caged trials, in the real life environment. In January, entomologists will start deploying a strange bacterium called Wolbachia pipientis in an attempt to halt disease transmission by mosquitoes. Their target is the Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that transmits dengue, a human viral disease that causes crippling joint and muscle pains.
Recent studies have shown that infection with Wolbachia makes mosquitoes resistant to the den-gue virus. Now, a team at the University of Queensland in Brisbane wants to test whether Wolbachia can be spread in the wild by setting free small numbers of mosquitoes infected with the microbe. It should work, they say (and it did in caged trials), because Wolbachia plays weird tricks on insects' sex lives, helping it spread like wildfire. So, what are the plans for our Ministry of Health to take part in such field trials, so we are seen to be doing something innovative against dengue for our citizens?
Desmond Smith
Swindon, England