The number of Dengue Fever cases in Yogyakarta is declining compared to that of the previous year. The surveillance coordinator of Eliminate Dengue Project (EDP) Yogyakarta, dr. Citra Indriani, said based on the data from Health Institution Yogyakarta until the end of September, there are 374 cases and 2 of them cause mortality. On the other hand, Citra said those cases are much less in number than the previous year cases which were up to 1,307 cases for the same period.
Despite the decrease of the cases, Citra is appealing to the community to keep alert. The community is asked to continue the Mosquito Nest Eradication to break the cycle of mosquito breeding. According to Citra, a consistent Mosquito Nest Eradication is effective to control dengue fever. Citra said the mosquito breeding increases during the rainy season.
Related to the matter, Citra encourages the community to immediately go to the Community Health Center if there are people suffering from high fever for 1-2 days.
“All Community Health Centers in Yogyakarta have been equipped with dengue early warning system to detect the dengue fever,” said Citra.
On the other hand, an insect expert from Eliminate Dengue Project (EDP) Yogyakarta, Warsito Tantowijoyo, highlighted the increase of mosquito population in Yogyakarta, which is up to 10 until 60 percent. “Most of the mosquitos are Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus,” said Warsito.
It is the result of the samples of BG-Trap, a trap to catch adult mosquitos which was installed in more than 400 places in Yogyakarta. The samples of the mosquitoes trapped in the BG-Trap were taken once in a week and identified to calculate the population of mosquito in Yogyakarta.
Through the BG-Trap, EDP Yogyakarta obtained the percentage data of Ae. aegypti which contain Wolbachia bacteria that have been spread to 40 percent of Yogyakarta areas. The first stage of the release of mosquitoes in Tegalrejo and Wirobrajan Sub-districts has finished smoothly. “We distributed around 2,000 buckets in the first stage and all of them had been withdrawn,” said Warsito.
Meanwhile, the second stage is still running in 12 clusters. EDP Yogyakarta divides the areas into 24 clusters which consist of 35 sub-districts in Yogyakarta City and two villages in Bantul Regency. “We had withdrawn the buckets from 5 clusters,” said Warsito. His team took the mosquito egg buckets as the percentage of Wolbachia mosquitoes in the local areas had reached a certain threshold. Once the threshold is reached, the Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes will naturally breed.