Mosquito app could help fight against dengue

A new mobile phone app could advance the fight against a range of mosquito borne diseases in the Pacific.

This summer there has been a spike in dengue fever cases in Samoa, American Samoa, Fiji, French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna, while the region has also experienced cases of malaria, chikungunya and zika.

The free app, which took two years to develop, has successfully been piloted in four countries, including Haiti and Sierra Leone.

Rebecca Levine from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the app logs what's found in traps, letting users know where mosquito populations are concentrated.

"We are really hopefully that the success we saw in the Caribbean and Latin America with the using of this app can be translated to island settings here in the Pacific and we are available for help and support if countries want to use it and they need extra help."

Rebecca Levine said to work successfully the app requires strong community buy-in to collect data.