Dengue has huge socio-economic and direct health impacts world-wide and has been on the rise over the past decades. The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) against its Aedes vectors is being developed at the FAO-IAEA Insect Pest Control Laboratory and many pilot field pilot trials have been initiated in America, Asia and Europe. However, currently there is no information concerning how to account for climate in planning sterile males releases. The use of dynamical models of vector life-cycles coupled with machine learning techniques may allow developing more cost-effective strategies.

This workshop will consist of a series of lectures that present the SIT, the latest observational evidence of its effectiveness, and will also introduce participants to the basics of dynamical disease modelling and the role of climate in vector-borne disease transmission.
 
Afternoon hands on classes will introduce participants to methods to access and manipulate latest state-of-the-art climate information, as well as parallel classes in the use of the dynamical climate-driven vector mathematical model developed at ICTP, which includes a SIT component.

Grants: A limited number of grants are available to support the attendance of selected participants, with priority given to participants from developing countries. There is no registration fee.