Prepare to release mosquitoes to prevent dengue

On January 5, Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee had a working session with the Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology on the project "Towards eliminating dengue fever in Vietnam" with plans to release Wolbachia infected mosquitoes to prevent dengue fever. in Nha Trang City (Khanh Hoa).

Between 2013 and 2015, the release of Wolbachia infected mosquitoes was piloted in Tri Nguyen Island (Nha Trang City). As a result, Wolbachia-carrying mosquitoes have successfully replaced natural mosquito populations. Since the release of mosquitoes to date, Tri Nguyen Island has no dengue epidemic.

Drop mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia on Tri Nguyen Island.

According to the project representative, the field trials in Australia, Indonesia, Brazil, Colombia . proved that this method is safe, so far there are no unusual health problems. and environment.

It is expected that the release of Wolbachia infected mosquitoes is about to be implemented in mid-March 2017 in the area of ​​4 wards of Nha Trang City including: Vinh Phuoc, Vinh Tho, Vinh Truong and Phuoc Long. In preparation for the plan, the project implementation board has approved the approval of local community representatives, the approval rate is 98.7% in Phuoc Long and 100% in the remaining 3 wards.

Mr. Nguyen Dac Tai, Vice Chairman of Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee, said the province agreed with the plan but the release of mosquitoes must be cautious. Mr. Tai suggested the project team to coordinate with Nha Trang City People's Committee to organize a meeting for people, to fully inform the people of 4 wards as well as the surrounding area to reach a high consensus, then deploy the release of mosquitoes.

From January 15 to March 15, the project continued the communication and survey activities and took random acceptance forms for households (estimated 573 households) in the area to release mosquitoes, then proceeded to release. mosquito.