Mosquitoes carrying a bacteria that suppresses dengue fever are being released in Brazil, Vietnam, Australia and Indonesia in hopes of getting rid of the disease, BBC reported.

The program anticipates the breeding and multiplying of mosquitoes with the bacteria, Wolbachia, and is safe as it cannot be transmitted to humans.

Though it first began in 2012, the first batch of thousands of mosquitoes will be released in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro.

Specifically, 10,000 mosquitoes will be released each month for four months, and the first release is in Tubiacanga, in the north of Rio, BBC reported.

Luciano Moreira of the Brazilian research institute Fiocruz, who is leading the project in Brazil, told BBC, "Our teams performed weekly visits to the four neighbourhoods in Rio being targeted. Mosquitoes were analysed after collection in special traps. Transparency and proper information for the households is a priority."

Brazil leads the world in dengue cases after it reemerged in 1981 after a 20-year hiatus. Over the next 30 years, 7 million cases were reported, according to BBC.

The study was first done at the University of Monash in Australia in 2008, where researchers allowed the mosquitoes to feed on their own arms for five years because of concerns the bacteria could infect humans and domestic animals.

Since then Australia has successfully released a number of mosquitoes, which multiply every 10 weeks on average, relieving the scientific community of having to find a more aggressive tactic to fight dengue.

The way the system works is that Wolbachia, which is found in 60 percent of insects, acts like a vaccine for the mosquito which carries dengue, and prevents the disease from multiplying in the mosquito's body.

And when the bacteria is involved in the reproduction process, it can either leave eggs unfertilized, or continue the spread of the "good bacteria" and make it a dominant trait of the mosquito population.

If a contaminated male fertilizes the eggs of a female without the bacteria, these eggs do not turn into larvae. If both male and female are contaminated or if only a female has the bacteria, all future generations of mosquito will carry Wolbachia, BBC reported.

Three more neighborhoods will be targeted in Brazil and a wide-scale impact study is slated for 2016.