University of Queensland’s ‘Eliminate Dengue’ Project

Background

The ‘Eliminate Dengue’ project is responsible for the development of a new biological approach for the control of dengue fever. The approach involves introducing strains of a bacterium called Wolbachia into the mosquito population, effectively blocking virus transmission. The project is funded by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health as part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s ‘Grand Challenges in Global Health’ initiative.

In January 2010, Weber Shandwick was engaged by the University of Queensland to prepare the media, Cairns community and key national stakeholders for the first field trial in two Cairns suburbs in January 2011. Community support was vital for the groundbreaking trial as infected mosquitoes would be released into backyards and around community buildings.

Implementation

Stakeholder Mapping

• Coupled with comprehensive desktop research, Weber Shandwick hosted a stakeholder mapping session with key scientists and KOL’s involved in the project to help identify key advocates/badvocates across a broad range of possible disciplines including the environment, scientific community, tourism, government and media.
• Weber Shandwick conducted in-depth interviews with key stakeholders, analysed stakeholder perceptions and identified ways to create a favourable environment to facilitate government and community support for the ‘Eliminate Dengue’ program.

Issues Preparedness

• In order to pre-empt any issues and/or crises that might face the project, Weber Shandwick developed a comprehensive issues preparedness toolkit which included key messages, Q&A’s, biographies, factsheets and key contacts for all possible scenarios agreed during the initial planning phase. This toolkit was subsequently presented to the Eliminate Dengue international team of scientists at their annual meeting in Brisbane, 2010.
• A select group of key spokespeople for the program received comprehensive media and issues training to ensure they were consistently on message and to prepare them for the subsequent media outreach campaign.

Results

• Despite the sensitivity surrounding biological control methods in Australia’s past (the cane toad), there were minimal concerns voiced by the Australian public regarding the project via the multiple feedback channels available to them. Whilst the majority of the local Cairns community felt extremely proud to be a part of what could be an Australian first to provide a solution to the global burden of dengue fever.
• External stakeholders identified during the mapping exercise received targeted communication on all key project milestones resulting in them being kept fully informed should they be approached for independent comment during the media outreach element of the project.
• Weber Shandwick successfully launched a national media campaign to announce the first field Wolbachia trial, resulting in 100% positive coverage.Read

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Photo credit: Colyn Huber