“How Wolbachia Mosquito Eggs are Used to Combat Dengue Fever in Semarang”

TRIBUNMURIA.COM, SEMARANG – 7,000 buckets containing the eggs of the Aedes aegypti mosquito with Wolbachia will be distributed to residents in Tembalang District to reduce cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF).

Semarang City Health Service (Dinkes) Head, Moh Abdul Hakam said, buckets filled with Wolbachia mosquito eggs will be placed in the community environment.

The distance of each bucket is about three houses.

“You will be given a bucket later. Half of the bucket will be given water. Fill it with 50 eggs.”

“Put it in a higher place so that it is away from prying hands.”

“After that, it is the duty of the residents and cadres to see it every day,” said Hakam, Tuesday (30/5/2023).

After two weeks, he continued, it needs to be seen to find out how many eggs have become mosquitoes.

If 60 percent of the eggs have become mosquitoes and fly into the environment, then that’s pretty good.

“Hopefully, the mosquitoes that have flown will fly to one to three houses around,” he said.

His party has recruited 30 health workers (health workers) to evaluate this method in Tembalang District.

Not only Tembalang District, it is planned that this method will also be implemented in all sub-districts. It’s just waiting for the production of Wolbachia mosquito eggs.

Currently, the production of Aedes aegypti mosquito eggs with Wolbachia can only be carried out at the Salatiga Disease Reservoir and Vector Research and Development Center.

Meanwhile, the cities implementing this pilot project method are not only Semarang, but five cities in Indonesia.

Salatiga can only produce five million eggs per day.

If other large centers, such as Gajahmada and Surabaya, can produce it, of course it can be implemented in other sub-districts immediately.

“What is needed in Tembalang is two million every week.”

“Whether Salatiga will be divided into five cities throughout Indonesia or what. So, we just launched in Tembalang first,” he explained.

Reported by iap2.or.id, there are three scenarios to suppress the spread of dengue with the technology of incubating the eggs of Wolbachia aegypti mosquitoes.

First, if male mosquitoes with Wolbachia are released out into the open so that later male mosquitoes mate with wild female mosquitoes, the female mosquitoes will still lay eggs but cannot hatch.

Second, the second scenario is that if male mosquitoes with Wolbachia mate with female mosquitoes with Wolbachia, they will produce eggs and the mosquito’s offspring will no longer be able to transmit dengue.

Third, if female mosquitoes with Wolbachia are released and mate with wild male mosquitoes, the resulting eggs are mosquito offspring that do not have dengue virus. (ugh)