Efficacy of Wolbachia-mediated sterility to suppress dengue incidence
Release of Wolbachia-infected Ae. aegypti represents a new class of vector control tools, with the introgression approach using female Wolbachia-infected Ae. aegypti to block dengue transmission already characterized in past field trials. However, evidence on the suppressive efficacy of release of male Wolbachia-infected Ae. aegypti on Aedes aegypti abundance and dengue transmission remains scarce.
Here, I will outline the use of nationally representative disease surveillance and testing databases to evaluate current large scale field trials of incompatible-insect technique (n > 600,000) to suppress Aedes mosquito populations and reduce dengue transmission in dengue-endemic Singapore. These studies encompass the development and application of synthetic control methods and target trial emulations to obtain causal estimates of intervention efficacy under the nonrandomized, staggered adoption setting of field trials.
