Brazil looks to short-term and long-term strategies to fight a disease so painful it's known as"breakbone fever." The outbreak is part of a global wave of dengue triggered in part by climate change.A patient is transferred to a hospital after receiving medical care at an improvised military aid station set up to treat suspected cases of dengue fever in the administrative region of Ceilandia, on the outskirts of Brasilia, on Feb. 6.
Just two days later, there was an explosion in the number of confirmed dengue cases in the Federal District, where Brasilia is situated. That Brazilian state had issued an emergency decree two weeks earlier because of the havoc the mosquito-borne disease was wreaking on its population.
But dengue vaccines have a controversial history. While Brazil hasn't taken steps to vaccinate its population against dengue until now, the Philippines did attempt to immunize children across the country in 2016. The vaccination campaign went horribly wrong, with at leastblamed on the vaccine, which seemed to increase the risk of plasma leakage syndrome, a complication in which blood vessels leak blood's yellow fluid, in children who had never been exposed to dengue before.
"The Wolbachia method is one of the best interventions for vector control so far," says Malavige."Since it's a biological method, the harm to the environment by chemical fogging is eliminated.
Once they have permission from people living in the community, the scientists take to the streets for four to six weeks, driving or walking around with containers full ofwith Wolbachia to release in strategic points of the city. They also hang open containers of eggs from trees, allowing Wolbachia mosquitoes to hatch in the local habitat.