JAKARTA (BERNAMA) – The Indonesian government is conducting a programme involving the use of mosquitoes with Wolbachia to control the spread of dengue in six cities, said Health Ministry’s Director of Communicable Disease Prevention and Control Imran Pambudi, reported ANTARA news.
“It has been running in five cities and has been expanded to include Denpasar,” he said during a talk show on dengue handling in Jakarta on Thursday.
The other five cities are Semarang, Bandung, West Jakarta, Bontang and Kupang.
Wolbachia bacteria are naturally found in 60 per cent of insects, and in the body of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, they can curb the replication of the dengue virus, thereby reducing the mosquito’s ability to transmit dengue.
Pambudi explained research on Wolbachia has been conducted by experts in several countries, and various scientific discussions agreed that the use of the bacteria is safe.
