An Australian Government-funded project to eradicate dengue fever in the Mekong Delta over the last five years has been successful, according to Kerry Groves from AusAID Vietnam.

“ Vietnam is among three countries (along with Singapore and Cuba ) that have been successful in dengue prevention in the world,” Groves said.

The project involved introducing the non-indigenous crustacean Mesocyclops in 12 communes in the three Mekong Delta provinces of Vinh Long, Long An and Ben Tre. After five years, it was found that the use of the predatory Mesocyclops had reduced mosquito populations by 98 percent in 9 of the 12 communes. In the remaining three communes, mosquito populations had been reduced by 80 percent.

“The project has been more successful than any previous attempt to reduce the risk of dengue fever in Vietnam ,” Vu Sinh Nam , deputy director of the Preventive Medicine and Environment at the Ministry of Health.

“The low-cost expansion of Australia International Development Organisation’s community-based model is a proven and sustainable method of protecting communities from rural water-supply infrastructure-related dengue risk,” he added.

The Dengue Safe Water Project, which was launched in 2005, aimed to boost water supplies and sanitation by reducing the Aedes aegypti mosquito’s breeding grounds.

The project focused on developing a mostquito-control strategy that included reducing major mosquito-breeding habitats, using larvae-eating copepods of the genus Mesocyclops as a biological control agent, and carrying out community-based health-promotion campaigns.

“Before the project was launched, people did not know anything about dengue. Now when people talk about dengue they know it is transmitted by mosquitoes. People know what causes it and how to prevent it,” said Phan Thi Thu, a housewife in Thanh Tri district in Ben Tre province.

“There are more than 100,000 cases of dengue in Vietnam a year, mostly in the south of the country. With no vaccine available, mosquito control is the only option currently available to prevent the spread of this viral disease,” said Simon Kutcher, the project manager.

Vietnam invests about 4.2 million USD a year from its “National Target Programme on Dengue Prevention” – just 10 percent of the funding needed.

Health experts said they hoped the Mekong Delta project would be adopted in other countries this year./.