Beware of ‘Dugem’ Mosquitoes in Papua

National Sports Week (MON) XX Papua will soon be held on 2-15 October 2021. However, it is feared that this will interfere with malaria and become a special concern for the Directorate of Prevention and Control of Vector and Zoonotic Diseases of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia.

Until now, Papua is still a malaria endemic area. Malaria is a disease caused by the bite of a female Anopheles mosquito that carries Plasmodium.

Director of Prevention and Control of Vector and Zoonotic Diseases of the Indonesian Ministry of Health, Didik Budijanto, revealed that 86 percent of the total cases malaria in Indonesia donated by Papua.

“There are 4 regencies/cities in Papua, all of which are endemic for malaria, Jayapura City, Jayapura Regency, Merauke, and Timika. All of them are in the red category,” said Didik, quoted from AMONG, Wednesday (22/9/2021).

In his explanation, Didik said that there are three types of diseases caused by the bite of the Anopheles mosquito or often called the ‘clubbing mosquito’. In addition to malaria, this mosquito can cause filariasis (elephant foot) and Aedes aegypti which causes dengue.

The Anopheles mosquito is known as the clubbing mosquito. The reason is, these mosquitoes only come out at night, starting at 18.00 until morning.

“This Anopheles mosquito likes clubbing. Mosquito it will be ready when the sun starts to set, at that time he will preen himself and fly looking for prey,” explained Didik.

Judging from the physical, this clubbing mosquito is almost similar to other mosquitoes. However, this clubbing mosquito has a flat body and a slightly elongated abdomen from the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

To anticipate this, the Indonesian Ministry of Health has sent vector control personnel to do fogging at least once a week. This is done in all lodging facilities, especially on the walls and locations adjacent to mosquito habitats.

“Unless there is a game at night. So, every two to three hours before the game starts we fogging first,” he concluded.

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