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Around ten thousand mosquitos immunized against dengue fever have been released in Rio, Brazil, who will combat dengue by curbing the spread of the tropical viral sickness, biologists said Thursday. 

Gabriel Sylvestre Ribeiro told AFP that the Aedes aegypti mosquitos were released in Tubiacanga neighborhood in northern Rio state.

"We inoculated them in the lab with the Wolbachia bacteria, which block the development of the dengue virus," he said.

"We release the 'good mosquitoes' in front of people's houses so that they enter and reproduce with the wild mosquitoes. Their progeny will no longer transmit dengue," which can be fatal, said the biologist.

The method is already functioning in Vietnam, Indonesia and Australia. According to researchers, the results would arrive next year when the majority of the mosquitoes in Tubiacanga should already be immunized and harmless to people.

According to reports, Brazil has been the country most affected by dengue since 2000, with seven million cases reported.