For Noel Maciel Junior, dengue fever isn't just a public health statistic - it's personal. The business manager has watched friends lose their lives to the disease whilst others struggled to find hospital beds during outbreaks. As he manages his artisan coffee house, Torrefação Joinville - Cafés Nobres, in the heart of the city, Noel has witnessed first-hand how mosquito-borne diseases have devastated his community. But now, thanks to our Wolbachia method, there's renewed hope in "The City of Flowers".
"Dengue here in Joinville has had a very strong effect on people," says business manager Noel Maciel Junior. "I have friends who ended up losing their lives because they contracted the virus, and others who got really sick and had trouble finding a hospital bed to be admitted to. We've had people very close to us suffer real badly."
Noel manages the artisan coffee house in Vila Prinz, Torrefação Joinville - Cafés Nobres, right at the heart of the city often called "The City of Flowers", due to its array of beautiful gardens and parks, as well as its stunning location close to mountains and lush green valleys. Joinville, a city of roughly 600,000 people in southern Brazil's Santa Catarina state, has in recent years witnessed a number of devastating mosquito-borne outbreaks.
Noel says he learned about the project through watching the news, along with the strong support by the city mayor. He's seen first-hand how Joinville has been impacted by diseases like dengue.
"Dengue has effectively caused a lot of damage to the local population," he says. "Because it's a disease that leaves people very debilitated. Many workplaces had staff shortages as a result. We've had this in our business, and the local health system simply couldn't handle the demand of people who needed medical care. It has meant great suffering for the city."
Protecting 75% of the city's population
When the first phase of Wolbachia (known as Wolbito in Brazil) mosquito releases started in August 2024, Joinville was still reeling from a dengue epidemic which had impacted many parts of the city. During this phase, roughly 360,000 residents in 17 neighbourhoods were protected by WMP’s Wolbachia method.
The second phase, led by Wolbito do Brasil, will reach almost 75 per cent of the city’s population, covering a further 15 neighbourhoods and 150,000 people. In-person and virtual events have taken place across the city, including in schools, to share information and answer questions on the releases, alongside work with public representatives, local neighbourhood associations, and targeted campaigns through both digital media and news outlets.
Early results from the first phase have shown great promise and Noel believes there is already much hope for the future.
“What we can see is the incidence of the disease in the population has really decreased a lot,” exclaims Noel. “The dengue mosquito is no longer acting so violently, so drastically on the city. Things are calmer in Joinville, particularly in the hospitals, and I believe the impact of the project has already started to show in some ways. There are less cases of people contracting dengue.”
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Zero deaths and dramatically fewer cases
Cases have so far this year severely dropped, as have dengue-related deaths, which between 2023 and 2024 were 86. There have currently been none so far this year. Noel was in the right place at the right time to witness releases in the flesh this week.
"Yesterday I had the opportunity to personally see the work of people who carry out the dissemination of Wolbachia mosquitoes, because the car in front of me in the city centre traffic was opening their window, distributing mosquitoes. The stickers on the vehicle confirmed it was the (Wolbito do Brasil) releasers at work."
Noel recalls the words of the mayor at the time the releases were first being introduced to the city. He says Joinville was viewed as a test case to see if this would really work in southern Brazil.
Hope for Brazil's future
The business manager, grinding coffee beans in his very hip surroundings, believes "the experiment" has so far worked very well. "My future expectation is that this spreads throughout Brazil, because we have regions that desperately need it and have much more serious problems," he adds. "So my hope is that this project works very well here in Joinville and that soon it reduces the entire incidence of dengue in the national population."
