PUTRAJAYA: The Health Ministry has denied that Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes have been released in Negeri Sembilan, as claimed in a video that has gone viral on social media.
Health deputy director-general (Public Health) Datuk Dr Norhayati Rusli instead said the video was related to the ministry’s malaria eradication programme and had nothing to do with the dengue control programme using Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes.
Dengue prevention efforts require community participation, which included keeping residential areas and neighbourhoods clean, eliminating mosquito breeding grounds, as well as using aerosol sprays and mosquito repellents, she said in a statement on Saturday (July 1).
The statement was also issued to refute the claim that Aedes mosquitoes only feed on blood in order to survive.
According to Dr Norhayati, female Aedes mosquitoes need blood in order to produce eggs, while both male and female Aedes mosquitoes feed on plant nectar to survive.
She said that injecting Wolbachia, a bacteria found in 60% to 70% of insects, into Aedes aegypti mosquitoes could inhibit dengue virus replication and thereby prevent its transmission to humans.
Wolbachia-infected Aedes mosquitoes were not genetically modified and had no adverse effects on mosquitoes or the environment, she added.
Dr Norhayati also said that a study conducted in Malaysia from 2017 to 2019 showed that the number of dengue cases dropped by 50% to 80% in localities where Wolbachia-infected Aedes mosquitoes were released, compared to areas where Wolbachia-infected Aedes mosquitoes were not released.
"The operation to release Wolbachia-infected Aedes mosquitoes in Malaysia was launched in 2019 as an additional strategy to deal with the increase in dengue cases and outbreaks in localities with high dengue cases.
"This method has also been implemented in several countries such as Australia, Indonesia and Brazil, resulting in a decrease of between 70% and 76% of cases in localities where Wolbachia-infected Aedes mosquitoes were released.
"In Malaysia, this operation has so far been carried out in seven states, involving 28 localities," she said.
Dr Norhayati said two years after the operation to release Wolbachia-infected Aedes mosquitoes was implemented, 16 out of 19 localities (84.2%) (cohort 1 and cohort 2) showed a trend of decreasing dengue fever cases by 33% to 100%.
She said that one of the remaining three localities had no dengue cases, while the other two showed no increase in dengue cases and had a small number of reported cases.
For accurate information about the operation to release Wolbachia-infected Aedes mosquitoes in Malaysia, the public can visit www.infosihat.gov.my or call the Health Ministry hotline at 03-8883 3231, Monday to Friday from 8am to 5pm.
The public can also access the most up-to-date dengue information by visiting the iDengue website at http://idengue.mysa.gov.my/. - Bernama
