Aussie scientists step closer to helping stop outbreaks of dengue fever

A portable test to detect dengue fever in wild mosquitos is one step closer after a pair of Queensland scientists were awarded a lucrative grant to build a prototype.

Dengue fever is one of the world's most significant health hazards, however there is no vaccine or medical treatment other than a pain reliever.

"The best control measure, or the only control measure is the vector control," University of Queensland professor Paul Young told Xinhua on Friday, meaning killing the mosquitos at their source.

Current practice, based off a discovery from Young and his team 15 years ago, requires samples to be taken from human blood and be sent to laboratories for confirmation of a special protein linked to dengue fever.

However Young and fellow UQ professor Matt Cooper's portable device would provide an immediate response, safeguarding communities from the virus by searching for the same protein in mosquitos.

Backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation grant as part of the global Grand Challenges Explorations program, Young said the prototype device would act similar to a pregnancy test.

If you place a strip into a solution with the mosquito and a line appears, you've got an infected mosquito and then that data can be linked back to a central control room for effective response mechanism, Young said.

"So it's a way of enhance what we currently do in terms of vector surveillance," Young said.

The high prevalence of dengue throughout the world is seeing some novel approaches into high-tech control of the virus-transmitting mosquito.

Other Australian researchers at Monash University have embedded the Wolbachia bacterial symbiont into dengue transmitting mosquitos, which actually makes them resistant to the deadly virus.

Young said there's been promising results in their early field testing in northern Queensland, Vietnam and South America, where the Wolbachia laced mosquitos have taken over the local population.

"That's why we've actually incorporated into our study, not only the detection of dengue, but the detection of Wolbachia so that field officers can determine the level of penetration of these other approaches of vector control into the mosquito population," Young said. Endit