Giving Compass' Take:

• Global Citizen reports on a new grant to researchers in Australia to help fight mosquito-borne diseases, which disproportionately affect the poorest communities in the world.

• What impact will this funding have in slowing or stopping the spread of dengue fever, Zika and other illnesses? How can nonprofits and other aid organizations lend a hand in this field?

• Here's why climate change is a key factor in the rise of mosquito-borne diseases.

Australia just became an international frontrunner in the fight against mosquito-borne diseases.

Researchers from Monash University in Melbourne were awarded a $50 million grant to advance successful research efforts, giving hope that the negative health effects of the world’s deadliest animal could soon be curbed.

The financial donation from the Wellcome Trust and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will support Monash University’s World Mosquito Program over three years as it attempts to tame dengue fever, Zika, and the Chikungunya virus across Australia, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific Islands.

“We know this project has already demonstrated and proved the kinds of diseases it can wipe out and how it can do it,” Monash University Vice Chancellor Margaret Gardner said in a statement. “In our lifetimes I believe we are going to see these diseases that once wreaked devastation be no longer. This project will transform people's lives.”

The program recently received increased attention after a four-year long trial to stop local dengue transmissions proved a success in the far north Australian city of Townsville. Operating throughout 12 countries, the World Mosquito Program inserts natural bacteria present in 60% of all insects into disease carrying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which, in turn, reduces their ability to pass on various viruses.

Read the full article about Australian scientists fighting mosquito-borne diseases by Madeleine Keck at Global Citizen.