Mosquitoes: From foe to friend in the fight aganist dengue fever | Scott Ritchie | TEDxJCUCairns

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Professor Scott Ritchie nicknamed Itchy Ritchie leads a team that explores ways of preventing the debilitating and potentially fatal Dengue Fever. Scott explains how a wolbachia bacterium acts as a dengue vaccine for the dengue mosquito. Spread in insect populations it creates a green method of controlling dengue.

Professor Scott Ritchie leads a diverse group of health practitioners and research scientists whose collective goal is to prevent vector-borne disease, especially dengue, in north Queensland. He is the principal investigator in the Eliminate Dengue program funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation since its inception in 2005. Scott is also involved in new projects studying the potential impact of global warming on dengue in Australia, new pesticides for the control of Ae. aegypti and the development of novel mosquito traps for the detection of pathogens in mosquitoes and other disease vectors.

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