Continued dengue transmission represents a public health burden both in terms of costs of dengue control as well as the potentially severe consequences of a dengue hemorrhagic fever epidemic.

The increased disease incidence in the Americas, combined with increased frequency of epidemic dengue caused by multiple virus serotypes, has increased the risk of epidemic dengue hemorrhagic fever, one of the leading causes of hospitalization and death among children in Southeast-Asia.

Presently, the only way to reduce the incidence of dengue and thus prevent epidemic dengue hemorrhagic fever is to control the mosquito that transmits the virus. Unfortunately, the ability to control Aedes aegypti is limited, and it has been noted in the literature that the only effective way to control the mosquito vectors of dengue is source reduction.

The underlying principle of source reduction consists of the elimination or reduction of vector breeding sources in order to disrupt the immature life cycle of the mosquito.