Village of Kricak in Tegalrejo district became the first village that gets eggs of Aedes aegypti mosquito that contains Wolbachia bacteria as part of Eliminate Dengue Project research (EDP-Yogya) in the city of Yogyakarta. A symbolic handover of Wolbachia eggs in Kricak was held on Monday, August 15th, 2016. The event was attended by the Chief of Medical Office of Yogyakarta, dr. Vita Yulia, Head of Tegalrejo district, Sutini Sri Lestari, Head of Kricak, Agata Ari Wulandari, and a number of residents.
As many as 293 buckets containing Wolbachia mosquito were distributed. Hopefully, within a certain period of time, the eggs can breed and able to protect the region from the threat of dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) naturally, safely and sustainably. Afterwards, gradually the mosquitoes will be released to most of the city areas in Yogyakarta until 2017.
This location was chosen as the first location due to its high case of dengue fever while its population density is relatively high in Yogyakarta. DHF is also a health problem that is considered serious in Yogyakarta. The Health Office of Yogyakarta recorded in the first half of 2016 cases of dengue has reached 623 people. Meanwhile, the number of dengue fever patients in the period from January to December 2015 reached 943 people.
dr. Vita Yulia in her speech hoped that the community continues to support the research that is newly established in the city of Yogyakarta. “But people should also understand that this research takes time to be able to lower cases of dengue fever, (it) could not happen immediately. Hopefully, dengue cases could be decreased so that Yogya will still retain the Healthy City title that has been won five times,” said Vita.
Before performing the experiment, EDP-Yogya has conducted a series of communication and dissemination to the public of Kricak which ended with an agreement with the residents to support this study in early August. Eliminate Dengue Project Yogya (EDP-Yogya) initiated by the Faculty of Medicine UGM and funded by the Tahija Foundation Indonesia is now developing a dengue-control study using Wolbachia Aedes aegypti. The wolbachia mosquitoes are able to inhibit the transmission of dengue virus in mosquitoes so that it can not transmit the dengue virus to humans.
Prof. Adi Utarini, head of EDP-Yogya, expressed appreciation for the community support. “This study will only succeed with the support from society and the government, we expect the mosquito eggs will develop into adult mosquitoes and mate with local mosquitoes to later produce mosquitoes that already contain Wolbachia. Hopefully, within a certain time, most of the mosquito in the city of Yogyakarta will contain Wolbachia,” she explained.
Head of Tegalrejo, Sutini Sri Lestari, expressed great expectations to this research. “Tegalrejo currently ranks second in the case of dengue prevalence, hopefully this study could be one of the alternative solutions for dengue fever,” she explained.