Since the beginning of 2024, the Hong Kong-based GX Foundation has installed more than 2,500 mosquito traps and distributed nearly 73,000 adhesive insect strips, approximately 85,000 rapid dengue detection tests and around 900 mosquito nets across 14 municipalities in Timor-Leste.

"We are trying to include this physical method of killing mosquitoes and controlling the spread of dengue and other diseases in the WHO guidelines," said Leung Chun-ying, chairman of the foundation and former Chief Executive of Hong Kong, in an interview with Lusa news agency.

According to official data, Timor-Leste recorded the lowest number of new dengue infections in the first quarter of 2025 in four years, with five municipalities reporting zero cases.

Leung stressed that the organisation's success in mosquito control in Timor-Leste has already been recognised in an article published in March 2025 by The Lancet medical journal. Over the past weekend, the founder revealed, The Lancet accepted a second article on the foundation's work, with "broader coverage, also outside Timor-Leste".

(Source: Plataforma, on 2 March)