TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Jakarta to release Wolbachia mosquitoes in battle against dengue
The city is set to release mosquitoes with Wolbachia in its latest measure to curb the spread of dengue fever, while the acting governor has dismissed the seriousness of relevant authorities about slapping fines on residents that do not comply with the relevant health rules.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
A stock illustration shows a mosquito on a person’s skin. (Shutterstock/File)
T
he Jakarta administration plans to release lab-bred mosquitoes carrying the Wolbachia bacteria in an effort to curb the dengue outbreak in the city.
Jakarta Health Agency head Ani Ruspitawati said authorities were preparing to release the modified mosquitoes as part of a pilot project in Kembangan district, West Jakarta.
"We have not started the project yet. We're still in the preparatory process. If everything's ready, including the public, we will release the mosquitoes," Ani said on Sunday, as reported by Tempo.co.
She assured that releasing the mosquitoes with Wolbachia was a new tool to combat dengue in addition to the decades-old 3M campaign of Menguras, Menutup, Mendaur Ulang (draining, covering and recycling water sources) to eliminate potential mosquito breeding grounds.
Wolbachia, which was first identified by United States scientists Marshall Hertig and S. Burt Wolbach in the 1920s and 1930s, is a bacterium that naturally exists in in 60 percent of insect species but not in Aedes aegypti, the main transmitter of dengue and several other viruses.
Read also: Dawn of a worse dengue era
When injected into mosquitoes, Wolbachia competes with viruses like dengue inside mosquitoes and makes it harder for the microorganisms to reproduce, thus reducing the insects’ ability to transmit them to humans.
