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n initiative called the Eliminate Dengue Project-Yogya (EDP-Yogya) is being implemented to fight dengue fever in the province through the release of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes carrying the Wolbachia bacterium, which prevents them from transmitting the dengue virus.

The project was developed by Gadjah Mada University'€™s (UGM) School of Medicine to naturally control the outbreak of dengue fever.

'€œWith this method we directly attack the virus that causes dengue fever carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito,'€ UGM researcher Riris Andono Ahmad said on Friday.

She said Wolbachia was a bacterium found in some mosquitoes in Indonesia that blocks the transmission of the dengue virus.

In the first stage of the project, she said, 25 mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia would be released over a 50-square-meter area. A week later, more than 25 mosquitoes would be released in the middle of the site area.

These mosquitoes, according to Riris, would breed and transmit Wolbachia bacteria to their offspring. This makes EDP-Yogya a sustainable way of combating dengue fever, she said.

Riris also said that the Wolbachia bacterium, which was found in 70 percent of wild insects across Indonesia, had been proven harmless to human beings. '€œBreeding mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia will be safe for people,'€ she said.

Director of the EDP-Yogya team, Adi Utarini, said that the mosquito release would first be conducted in Nogotirto and Kronggahan subdistricts, Sleman regency, this month.

'€œNinety percent of the people in the two subdistricts have expressed support for the release. The rest have not yet expressed support mostly because of their lack of understanding about the project,'€ Adi said.

She also said that people in the two subdistricts had been intensively involved in the two-month project, starting with the mosquito release, monitoring and evaluation.

A meeting with residents of Nogotirto has also been scheduled for Sunday at the subdistrict hall to provide them with information regarding the advantages of the project.

Adi added that the government had given the nod to the project, which was funded by an Indonesian foundation, and also involved eight researchers from eight different countries that have had experience of successfully implementing the EDP.

'€œEDP has been tried out in a number of countries such as Australia and it has been proven to be safe for human, animals and the environment,'€ she said.

Another researcher on the team, Warsito Tantowijoyo, said the team would continue to breed Aedes aegypti mosquitoes containing Wolbachia.

'€œWe are capable of producing 7,000 mosquitoes a week currently. If the EDP method is successful we will produce more to meet the demand,'€ Warsito said.