World Mosquito Program
The World Mosquito Program (WMP) is a not-for-profit group of companies owned by Monash University that works to protect the global community from mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue, Zika, yellow fever and chikungunya. WMP uses naturally occurring bacteria called Wolbachia to reduce the ability of mosquitoes to transmit viruses that cause life-threatening disease.
A growing body of evidence to support the efficacy of the method includes a randomised trial in Indonesia which shows a 77% reduction in dengue incidence in areas treated with Wolbachia, and 86% reduction in dengue hospitalisations.
In the cities of Bello, Medellín and Itagüí in Colombia, dengue incidence has declined by 95-97% compared to the pre-release period. In the decade since implementation began in north Queensland, dengue has effectively been eliminated as a public health concern in the region.
Our self-sustaining, safe, non-GMO and cost-effective method has been deployed in 13 countries over the past decade, protecting almost 11 million people, and its effectiveness for dengue control has been demonstrated in multiple public health interventions.
We are now undergoing rapid organisational growth. Scale-up plans for national deployments in existing countries are in preparation in addition to groundwork for potential expansion to new countries.
Multiple risk analyses conducted on the Wolbachia method have concluded that it is safe for people, animals and the environment. Releases of Wolbachia mosquitoes receive regulatory approval from relevant government bodies in every country where they take place. We only release mosquitoes with community endorsement and consistently receive community acceptance rates that are over 90%.
WMP works to equip at-risk communities with the tools and expertise to help protect themselves from the threat of mosquito-borne disease. We work to build local capacity and ownership by partnering with local health authorities, community leaders and local governments to ensure the implementation of our method is locally-relevant and sustainable.
Through the implementation of WMP’s Wolbachia method, we enable them to sustainably reduce the threat of mosquito-borne diseases.
WMP is funded through major grants, government departments and philanthropic supporters from all over the world. You can find out more by visiting worldmosquitoprogram.org.