The Joinville Health Department promoted, this Monday (1/7), actions related to the implementation of the Wolbachia method in the municipality. The method's strategy consists of introducing the Wolbachia bacteria into the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. A meeting about the project was attended by representatives from the Ministry of Health, Fiocruz and the World Mosquito Program (WMP). The group also inspected visit that marked the inauguration of a Wolbachia Method biofactory.

In addition to Joinville, five other cities are receiving the method: Londrina e Foz do Iguaçu (PR); Uberlândia (MG); Presidente Prudente (SP) and Natal. In previous stages, the method was implemented in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Niterói (RJ), Campo Grande, Belo Horizonte and Petrolina (PE). The bacteria, which is present in 60% of insects in nature and does not cause harm to humans, prevents viruses, not only dengue, but also zika, chikungunya and urban yellow fever, from developing in insects, contributing to the reduction of diseases. The wolbits will be released in Joinville and will reproduce with the local Aedes aegypti. Gradually, they will establish a new population of mosquitoes that do not transmit dengue fever and other diseases.

The Vice-President of Production and Innovation in Health (VPPIS) at Fiocruz, Marco Krieger, stated at the event that “this is a special day, we are entering a new phase of an international project that has a very important contribution from a Fiocruz researcher, Luciano Moreira. Over the last ten years, this project has matured from a scientific and technological point of view and has shown effectiveness in the places where it was implemented, with a significant reduction in arboviruses, notably dengue. This became very clear this year, as proportionally Niteroi had a much lower number of dengue cases, compared to Rio. The same occurred in Petrolina and Campo Grande, when compared to the surrounding cities. And this project, which still had proof of concept characteristics, from today onwards enters a new stage.”

The arbovirus control method was developed in Australia and is currently present in more than 20 cities in 14 countries. Furthermore, monitoring data reveals that wolbits are establishing themselves at very positive levels in the territories. In Australia, there was a 96% reduction in dengue cases.

Source: Fiocruz News Agency (AFN)