Jakarta, April 1 2024
Director General of Disease Prevention and Control at the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) Maxi Rein Rondonuwu emphasized that there is no relationship between the spread of Wolbachia mosquitoes and the level of ferocity of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which causes dengue fever.
According to him, the characteristics of the Aedes aegypti mosquito in areas where Wolbachia mosquitoes have been spread or not have remained the same. The signs and symptoms of people who are bitten by the Aedes aegypti mosquito are also the same, such as high fever followed by muscle pain, nausea, vomiting, headaches, nosebleeds and bleeding gums.
“Overall the characteristics and symptoms are the same. “In fact, there was no difference in the number of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes before and after Wolbachia was released,” said Director General Maxi in Jakarta, Monday (1/4).
To date, the distribution of mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia has been carried out in 5 cities, namely Semarang, Kupang, Bontang, Bandung and West Jakarta. The determination of these five areas takes into account the readiness of stakeholders and local communities.
Semarang was the first location to carry out the spread of wolbachia mosquitoes, followed by Bontang City and Kupang City. To date, this implementation has not been comprehensive in all regions. In Semarang City, the spread of wolbachia mosquitoes was carried out in 4 sub-districts, Bontang City in 3 sub-districts and Kupang City in 1 sub-district.
Meanwhile, for the Bandung area, the spread of mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia has only been carried out in 1 sub-district, namely Pesanggrahan, Ujung Berung District. In West Jakarta, Director General Maxi added, the distribution of mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia has not yet been implemented.
This is because we are still waiting for the community’s readiness and the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement between the Provincial Government (Pemprov) of the Special Region of Jakarta and the Ministry of Health which was delayed due to a change in leadership in DKI Jakarta.
Director General Maxi revealed that the results of joint monitoring between the Ministry of Health and the health service in the 5 cities showed that after the release of buckets of mosquitoes containing Wolbachia, the concentration of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes containing Wolbachia in nature was in the range of 20 percent.
This figure, continued Director General Maxi, is still below the percentage of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia, which ideally reaches 60 percent in nature.
“After the population reaches 60 percent, the release of buckets of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes will be withdrawn and the results of a reduction in dengue cases will only begin to be seen after 2 years, 4 years, 10 years and so on, like the implementation carried out in Yogyakarta City,” said Director General Maxi.
The spread of wolbachia-bearing mosquitoes has been proven effective in reducing cases of dengue fever in the city of Yogyakarta. Since it was first distributed in 2017, mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia have been proven to be able to reduce 77 percent of the incidence of dengue and 86 percent of hospital admissions.
Director General Maxi said that the application of wolbachia mosquito technology is guaranteed to be safe because it utilizes the natural wolbachia bacteria found in insects and has gone through a long research process.
Wolbachia technology research was carried out in Yogyakarta for 12 years, namely from 2011 to 2023. This research went through 4 research stages, starting from the feasibility and safety phase (2011-2012), limited scale release phase (2013-2015), wide scale release phase (2013-2015). 2016-2020), and implementation phase (2021-2022).
In the world, the first study of Wolbachia Application for Dengue Elimination (AWED) was carried out in Yogyakarta with a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial (CRCT) design which is a design with the highest standards.
In Indonesia, risk analysis was initiated by the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education and the Ministry of Health’s Balitbangkes involving 20 people from various expertise. The results of the analysis show that the release of mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia has a very low risk.
“In the next 30 years, the chance of increasing danger from the spread of Wolbachia-infected Aedes aegypti will be negligible,” said Director General Maxi.
WHO as the Vector Control Advisory Group (VCAG) in 2023 has recommended the use of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes containing Wolbachia. VCAG is a body tasked with providing advice and guidance regarding vector control or the spread of disease by certain vectors such as mosquitoes.
Even though wolbachia-infected mosquitoes have spread, Director General Maxi appealed to the public to complete prevention efforts by implementing Mosquito Nest Eradication (PSN) with 3M Plus.
This step can be taken by draining water reservoirs, closing water reservoirs, and recycling various items that have the potential to become breeding grounds for the Aedes aegypti mosquito which carries the dengue virus in humans.
This news was broadcast by the Communications and Public Services Bureau, Indonesian Ministry of Health. For further information, please contact the Halo Ministry of Health hotline number via hotline number 1500-567, SMS 081281562620 and email address [email protected].
Head of the Communications and Public Services Bureau
Dr. Siti Nadia Tarmizi, M. Epid
2024-04-01 16:48:12
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