Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has concluded our Arbovirus prevention project in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. This was an innovative initiative that combined science and community participation to reduce the transmission of dengue fever. While the activities related to the project finished in September 2025, the final scientific results are still being analysed. We expect to have these findings published in journals during the first quarter of 2026.
Launched in 2023, the project was implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the National Autonomous University of Honduras, the World Mosquito Program, the Metropolitan Health Region of the Central District, and local communities. Targeting the neighbourhoods of La Joya, El Edén, and El Manchén, it combined vector control methods such as Wolbachia-carrying mosquitos, indoor residual spraying, and pyriproxyfen disks on water wells, with strong community participation in all phases.
Key outcomes:
- More than 8.5 million mosquitos were released carrying the Wolbachia bacteria in El Manchén, with 97.8 per cent prevalence of Wolbachia in the local Aedes aegypti mosquito population.
- The dengue cases in El Manchén were significantly lower than expected, based on historical trends between this area and control areas that did not receive Wolbachia-carrying mosquitos. Statistical analyses suggest that the introduction of Wolbachia may have contributed significantly to this reduction in the incidence of dengue in El Manchén during last year’s outbreak.
- 7,500 households were reached through spraying and water well interventions in La Joya and El Edén.
Although the prevention project has concluded, we maintain our commitment to the health of communities in Honduras through our sexual and reproductive health project in San Pedro Sula, ongoing epidemiological monitoring of dengue and other Arboviral diseases, and preparedness strategies for potential emergencies.
