DKI Health Office Admits Wolbachia Mosquito Release Program Is Running Slow

JAKARTA - Head of the DKI Jakarta Health Service Ani Ruspitawati admitted that the program to release aedes aegypti mosquitoes containing bifurcatebacteria that has been running since October 2024 has been slower than the target.

"It's a bit slow from planning because, among other things, the availability of eggs, lack of supply, so we're adjusting to the availability of eggs," Ani told reporters, Thursday, March 13.

In the near future, the DKI Provincial Government will release the bisawatbachia mosquito in the third kelurahan, namely Kembangan. Previously, the distribution of funchastic mosquitoes to deal with dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) was carried out in North Kembangan and North Meruya Villages.

The spread of bisabachia mosquitoes is still focused on West Jakarta, especially Kembangan District. This is because the dengue cases in the area are still high.

"Anyway, the target is that all urban villages in Kembangan District will be applied to Wolbachia," said Ani.

In Kembangan Village, which will be released by the Sambarbachia mosquito, the DKI Provincial Government has prepared foster parents. The foster parents will be tasked with ensuring that mosquitoes in the buckets can hatch.

"We actually expect foster parents directly in 4 urban villages. Later the expansion will depend on how much stock of eggs. Later, depending on the grid, grids will be made in each area, there will be several foster parents," explained Ani.

From early January to March 9, 2025, the DKI Health Office recorded 1,416 cases of dengue fever. areas with the most dengue cases are in West Jakarta, with 418 cases since early 2025.

The distribution of buckets containing wolbachian mosquito eggs and feed to the homes of foster parents (OTA) of mosquitoes began on October 8, 2024.

Every two weeks, the Health Office conducts a bucket service process including refilling water, mosquito eggs and feed to ensure the program runs optimally and as expected.

Kembangan District was chosen as the first location for releasing wolbachia mosquitoes in Jakarta because they have the highest number of dengue cases in 2023 with an incident rate (incident rate/IR, namely the number of dengue cases divided by the population at the same time multiplied by 100,000 population) of 54.1 per 100,000 population.