Researchers want to unleash a swarm of mosquitoes on the north Queensland city of Townsville with the goal of curbing the spread of dengue fever.
Today, the researchers will hold a meeting with community leaders to try to get the city on board.
Scientists want to introduce mosquitoes that are infected with the bacteria Wolbachia, which makes the insects resistant to dengue fever.
The potentially fatal disease has no specific treatment and no vaccine.
Small-scale trials in Cairns have shown Wolbachia prevents mosquitoes from transmitting dengue, and they eventually overrun the existing dengue-carrying population.
Monash University Professor Scott O’Neill says he hopes the research will eventually lead to the elimination of dengue.
“When you think how big the disease is, how big a problem it is, it’s quite an ambitious goal,” he said.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said the incidence of dengue had grown dramatically around the world in recent decades.
Scientists estimate there are 390 million cases around the world every year.
Cairns woman Kath Kinneally was one of them.
She was struck down in the middle of training for an ironman race earlier this year.
“I remember it so clearly because I’d been feeling fine and it was almost instant – my back started aching and my legs started aching and I just thought ‘I just have to go to bed’,” she said.
“All night it just … the ache is indescribable really. Hot and cold, shaking and then one minute sweating. Every single bit of my body just hurt.”
She thought her chances of finishing the ironman event were over but she eventually bounced back.
“I waited a couple of weeks and had to go back to the doctors for some more blood tests and even though I felt awful I just hoped I could [get permission] for at least half-an-hour runs, at least that would be better than doing nothing,” she said.
“They told me that I just simply wasn’t allowed to because my blood count was all over the place … so I remember sitting there and just bawling my eyes out thinking that’s it, I’m not going to be able to do it.
“So I didn’t get the clearance to start exercising until six weeks after I was diagnosed, and everything was just slow. It was taking me ages to do a five-kilometre run.
“I just kept going and persevered and did it. It took me nearly 15 hours, which is a little slower than I’d have liked.”
Two weeks’ ago, Ms Kinneally completed the Cairns Ironman in a time of 15 hours.
Overseas trips increase threat
Australia’s love affair with Bali has meant the number of cases brought back from South-East Asia has quadrupled in the past few years.
In the past six months, there were almost 200 confirmed cases in northern Queensland.
Professor O’Neill says he and his team have successfully run small-scale trials in Cairns.
“We’ve had strong community support, the science has been very good and it’s looking very promising,” he said.
“[But] most of the dengue is happening in big cities in the tropics – Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok – places like that.
“This is almost like a staging ground for us to work out how to upscale and how to be able to deploy the method in a way that would enable us to do it over entire cities.”
Community gives positive feedback
A community reference group has been set up to gauge support for the plan.
Former local senior sergeant and now councillor Gary Eddiehausen is in charge.
“There’s been no negative feedback whatsoever and I wouldn’t expect there to be because it is a significant issue in north and far-north Queensland,” he said.
“Apart from our areas overseas, it’s a significantly larger problem so I’d be very surprised if anyone had any issues whatsoever with it really.”
Depending on support from the community, mosquitoes could be unleashed as soon as October.
Professor O’Neill will share his experiences with the group this afternoon.
“We’ll be working closely … over the months ahead just to make sure that we are paying attention to what the community feels, what its views are and that we’re responding appropriately to those,” he said.