Executive Summary

This year, approximately 40% of the world’s population is at risk of acquiring a virus transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. These people all live in tropical regions and many in areas where poverty compounds the risk. These viruses cause diseases known as dengue, Zika, chikungunya and yellow fever. Infection can result in death, horrific birth abnormalities in babies, extended periods of illness, loss of income and disruption of health systems during outbreaks. Sadly, for most of these diseases there are no effective vaccines available, nor effective methods for controlling the mosquito. As a result the disease burden is climbing, exacerbated by burgeoning tropical cities and the movement of people.

During the last 15 years the World Mosquito Program (WMP) has developed and tested a novel, effective and safe solution to this enormous problem. We have developed the tools and methods to effectively deploy this new public health intervention at scale and demonstrated our ability to do so.

Our challenge now is to make this new approach available to the maximum number of people globally in the shortest period of time. We will do this by undertaking a very focused and scaled deployment across two countries – Brazil and Indonesia. We will use these two countries as effective demonstrations of the impact that can be achieved at scale across multiple cities. We’ll use existing highly functional partnerships from our prior work in these countries as well as new implementation partners that will help realise our scaling ambition. Through this approach we will establish the pathway to provide ongoing protection to millions of vulnerable and marginalised people across the world.

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Accomplishments

WMP achieved a major milestone of protecting 10 million people across 12 countries where the Wolbachia method is being implemented. Through extensive research, advocacy, community engagement and implementation, these 10 million people have been protected from diseases such as dengue, Zika, chikungunya and yellow fever. These efforts have not only improved public health but also paved the way for sustainable disease prevention strategies, making a profound impact on global health in the process. After working in Indonesia for over 10 years, WMP has established three project sites and reached nearly 2 million people. Releases will be commencing soon in Bali, effectively “dengue proofing” the island. In Brazil, WMP is partnering with the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FioCruz) and has established a joint venture with IBMP, a nonprofit biotechnology Scientific and Technology institution. To date, five project sites have been established in the country and over 3.2 million people have been reached.