title: Assessing the epidemiological effect of wolbachia for dengue control.
abstract: Dengue viruses cause more human morbidity and mortality than any other arthropod-borne virus. Dengue prevention relies mainly on vector control; however, the failure of traditional methods has promoted the development of novel entomological approaches. Although use of the intracellular bacterium wolbachia to control mosquito populations was proposed 50 years ago, only in the past decade has its use as a potential agent of dengue control gained substantial interest. Here, we review evidence that supports a practical approach for dengue reduction through field release of wolbachia-infected mosquitoes and discuss the additional studies that have to be done before the strategy can be validated and implemented. A crucial next step is to assess the efficacy of wolbachia in reducing dengue virus transmission. We argue that a cluster randomised trial is at this time premature because choice of wolbachia strain for release and deployment strategies are still being optimised. We therefore present a pragmatic approach to acquiring preliminary evidence of efficacy through various complementary methods including a prospective cohort study, a geographical cluster investigation, virus phylogenetic analysis, virus surveillance in mosquitoes, and vector competence assays. This multipronged approach could provide valuable intermediate evidence of efficacy to justify a future cluster randomised trial.
authors.affiliation: Insect-Virus Interactions Group, Department of Genomes and Genetics, Institut Pasteur - CNRS URA 3012, Paris, France. Electronic address: louis.lambrechts@pasteur.fr.
authors.forename: Louis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lambrechts
authors.affiliation: MRC Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Neil M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Ferguson
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.affiliation: Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, Charles Perkins Centre, School of Biological Sciences and Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Edward C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Holmes
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Elizabeth A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: McGraw
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Scott L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: O'Neill
authors.affiliation: Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School, Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Eng E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Ooi
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and Rehabilitative Sciences, James Cook University, Cairns, QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: Scott A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Ritchie
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Peter A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Ryan
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA; Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.affiliation: Oxford University Clinical Research Unit, Centre for Tropical Medicine, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Centre for Tropical Medicine, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Nossal Institute of Global Health, University of Melbourne, Carlton, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Cameron P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Simmons
authors.affiliation: Institute for Human Infections and Immunity and Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Scott C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Weaver
mesh_terms: D000330:Aedes; D000818:Animals; D003715:Dengue / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission; D003716:Dengue Virus / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D007303:Insect Vectors / Q000382:microbiology*; D010572:Pest Control, Biological / Q000379:methods*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012107:Research Design; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D020577:Wolbachia