The World Mosquito Program has been operating in Vietnam since 2006, with Ho Chi Minh City now the location of WMP’s Asia hub office.
Mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue are prevalent in Vietnam, the first outbreak of dengue recorded in 1963. An average 80 to 100,000 cases of dengue are recorded every year, dozens of them fatal. Between 1998 and 2010 more than 1 million cases were reported. Today, dengue is endemic throughout the southern region and central coast, and in densely populated hubs such as Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.
(Data updated December 2021)
The World Mosquito Program (previously Eliminate Dengue) was established in Vietnam in 2006, with oversight by the Ministry of Health.
We are now using our technology to introduce naturally occurring Wolbachia bacteria to mosquito populations in Vietnam. Once Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes are released, they breed with wild mosquitoes. Over time, the majority of mosquitoes will carry Wolbachia. These mosquitoes will have a reduced ability to transmit viruses to people, decreasing the risk of outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases.
In 2013, we released the first phase of Wolbachia-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in Tri Nguyen Island followed by a release across eight hamlets in Vinh Luong, north of Nha Trang in 2018. Plans are in place to release in two new sites further south where the burden of dengue is significant.
Our team is monitoring the mosquito population to evaluate that the establishment of Wolbachia is self-sustaining over a long period in the release locations.
We also monitor dengue case notifications before, during and after release and compare case numbers in Wolbachia-treated communities with comparable neighbouring, untreated communities. We started monitoring dengue cases before we released Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes and we’ve continued to monitor them since.
Project sites
The first phase of releases of Wolbachia-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes took place on Tri Nguyen Island, near Nha Trang City in Khanh Hoa Province, in 2013. From March until June 2018, we carried out our first releases of Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes on mainland Vietnam, in Vinh Luong, a community north of Nha Trang.
A release is also scheduled for two sites outside Ho Chi Minh City in Southern Vietnam; in My Tho City in Tien Giang Province and Thu Dau Mot City in Binh Duong Province.
Our method
Our Wolbachia method is not an emergency measure, but rather a long-term, self-sustaining solution to reducing mosquito-borne diseases. It is compatible with other methods such as insecticides and vaccines.
Since 2011, we have been conducting field trials using our Wolbachia method around the world. Long-term monitoring shows that Wolbachia is self-sustaining at high levels in the majority of our international project sites up to eight years after release. In areas where high levels of Wolbachia are present, we have not seen any dengue outbreaks.
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