THE release of Dengue and Zika fighting mosquitos in the Douglas Shire will cease at the end of this month.

The Eliminate Dengue program has been based in Port Douglas since early October, releasing mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia - a natural and safe bacteria that can prevent mosquitoes transmitting diseases - across the region.

Eliminate Dengue Community Liaison Officer, Kate Retzki, said the speed with which the team has completed the bulk of operational activities, thanks to community support, has given them capacity to focus on the Cairns project expansion and investigate options in the Cassowary Coast region.

“We have been amazed by how people across northern Queensland have welcomed us and embraced our projects in countless different ways,” Retzki said.

“In 2016 we expanded our work in North and Far North Queensland, and to be able to shift into the monitoring phase in three sites is a significant milestone for our international program.”

Although the team from Melbourne’s Monash University will no longer be releasing mosquitoes with Wolbachia in Douglas, locals can still expect to see them over the next year, carrying out monitoring activities.

“What we expect to see is Wolbachia being sustained at high levels in the wild mosquito population and, hopefully, continue to see a fall in locally-transmitted dengue cases, as we have already over the past year,” Retzki said.

The expansion of the Cairns project will start this month, with the release of mosquitoes with Wolbachia to begin in Bentley Park and Edmonton. Releases will continue across the city in 2017.

The results of the Australian project sites has given the public health initiative confidence to implement the Wolbachia method in other communities around the world, where dengue is a much greater burden. There are plans to expand sites Colombia, Brazil, Vietnam and Indonesia, while other countries are currently being considered as new target areas.