Testing of a dengue control experiment will be conducted first in Cairns this January. The experiment comes as the only solution to the rising cases of dengue infection in Australia's favorite tropical holiday destination in far north Queensland.

The experiments fall under the Eliminate Dengue Project. It will be receiving support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The natural control measure involves infecting the dengue-carrying mosquitoes with a new breed of wolbachia, a bacteria found naturally in up to 70 per cent of all insect species. According to project leader professor Scott O'Neill, “The main effect that it has is to prevent the mosquito from being able to transmit dengue... It's kind of like a vaccine but instead of giving it to people we give it to mosquitoes, and it will spread in the mosquito population and should be self-sustaining.”

O'Neill claims the natural dengue control “could be a sustainable low-cost approach... and more environmentally friendly than spraying lots of insecticides into the environment to kill the mosquitoes.”

The wolbachia experiments have been in the laboratory for 15 years. Trials outside the laboratory were approved by the federal government's Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority.

A fifth Cairns resident was diagnosed with dengue fever last week, adding to more than a thousand confirmed cases of dengue fever in Far North Queensland during the November wet season.