At the meeting, Budi said that interventions to defeat dengue fever in Indonesia for the last 50 years had not succeeded in reducing the number of cases to the minimum threshold for global frequency. According to World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, the minimum threshold is 10 per 100,000 cases of the total population. However, the frequency of dengue fever in Indonesia is currently at 28.5 per 100,000 population.
The Indonesian government has taken various steps to reduce the number of cases, including fumigation, killing mosquito larvae with abate powder, and educating the public to keep the environment clean without standing water - where mosquitoes can breed. Trillions of rupiah have been spent to deal with dengue virus transmission.
The government's latest measure to tackle dengue fever is by dispersing mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia bacteria. The Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which already contains the Wolbachia bacteria, no longer transmits the dengue virus to humans, because the bacteria can paralyze the dengue virus in the mosquito's body.
In the meeting at the House of Representatives, Budi Gunadi explained that the Ministry of Health would start a pilot project to spread the Wolbachia mosquito in five Indonesian cities. They are West Jakarta in the Special Capital Region of Jakarta, Bandung in West Java, Semarang in Central Java, Bontang in East Kalimantan, and Kupang in East Nusa Tenggara. Meanwhile, the province of Bali expressed its rejection of the program, because some people are concerned about this innovation's impact on the ecosystem in the future. Indeed, recently there have been a lot of irresponsible hoaxes and wild rumors about the negative impacts of mosquitoes with Wolbachia circulating in Indonesian society.
Facing local resistance to this program, the government should execute outreach as clearly and widely as possible to the people. In Indonesia, research on mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia bacteria has been carried out since 2011 in the Special Region of Yogyakarta. The region in the province that has proven successful in reducing dengue fever cases by up to 77 percent, by using mosquitoes with Wolbachia, is Bantul Regency.
The effectiveness of using Wolbachia innovation to reduce the incidence of dengue fever has also been proven in 13 other countries, including Australia, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Fiji, and Mexico. Meanwhile, in Singapore, Wolbachia innovation is applied using a method of reducing the number of mosquito populations.
Hopefully, with clear information, regions in Indonesia will no longer hesitate and be willing to implement this program, so that all regions of the country can be free from dengue fever transmission.