Jakarta, IO – As a tropical country, Indonesia, with a humid and sunny clime, makes it a favorite breeding place for the Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, the primary causal vector of dengue fever (formerly known locally as the scourge demam berdarah or bloody fever). The mosquitoes that cause dengue infection live in clean, stagnant water, such as bathtubs, water barrels, or flowerpots and vases. Once they find breeding spaces, the stinging insects will proliferate greatly within three to four days.
The Indonesian government has instituted the “3M Plus program” to stop these mosquitoes from breeding. The “3Ms” are covering water containers, draining and burying waste items that can hold water, while the “Plus” is preventing mosquito bites and breeding places. Despite such efforts, a dengue infection trend continues to rise in our country and extraordinary occurrences frequently occur.
A total of 143,266 cumulative cases were confirmed in 2022, with an incidence rate (IR) of 52.12 per 100,000 citizens, and a case fatality rate (CFR) of 1,237 cases, or 0.9%. Reported dengue cases were distributed across 484 regencies and townships in all 34 provinces.
Up to the 20th week of 2023, the five regencies and townships with highest dengue IR are Denpasar City (964 cases), Bandung City (928), Regency of Bima (591), Regency of Badung (578), and Balikpapan City (465). The accumulative number of cases up to the 20th week is 33,027 cases, with 258 deaths recorded.
“Dengue fever remains a huge health issue in Indonesia, since its discovery in Surabaya in 1968, with a CFR of 41.30%. The Government seeks to achieve zero dengue deaths by 2030, applying the six steps of the 2021-2025 National Dengue Mitigation Strategy: solidifying vector management, improving dengue treatment access and procedure, strengthening dengue surveillance, increasing community participant, strengthening of program policies and partnerships, and developing evidence-based studies and innovations, such as using the Wolbachia technology,” declared dr. Siti Nadia Tarmizi, M.Epid., in the “Comprehensive Protection for the Whole Family from Dengue Fever” media meet in Jakarta, Wednesday (31/5/2023).
The Wolbachia anti-mosquito technology is the best supplementary effort to prevent dengue infection recurrence. The Wolbachia bacteria is naturally found in different types of insects, with the wMel strain having excellent ability to obstruct the development of the dengue virus and prevent it from being passed on to the next generation.
“The Wolbachia technology reduces the dengue fever IR by 77.1% and hospitalization rate by 82.6%. The Decree of the Minister of Health Number 1341 of 2022 stipulates five cities and townships as the site for the implementation of the Wolbachia technology pilot project, i.e. in (West) Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Kupang, and Bontang,” dr. Nadia said.
