Adi Utarini CONFRONTING DISEASE

A few years ago, on a trip to Indonesia, I visited a family near Adi Utarini's lab in Yogyakarta. I wanted to hear how she'd managed to convince them to let her release swarms of mosquitoes around their neighborhood. Their obvious pride in being part of her work was a testament to the trust Utarini has earned from her community--and to the urgency millions around the world feel in the fight against dengue fever. It is a triumph of global progress that most infectious-disease rates have trended downward year over year. Dengue fever, however, is a stubborn exception. The mosquito-borne illness affects almost 400 million people annually and has been described by the WHO as one of the 10 greatest threats to the world's health.