The Ministry of Health and the government of Minas Gerais inaugurated this Monday (29), in Belo Horizonte, the Wolbachia Biofactory. The unit, managed by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), will allow Brazil to expand its production capacity for one of the main technologies in the fight against dengue and other arboviruses.
Wolbachia is a bacterium present in around 60% of insects in nature, but naturally absent in Aedes aegypti. The so-called Wolbachia method consists of inserting the bacteria into mosquito eggs in the laboratory and creating Aedes aegypti that carry the microorganism. Infected by Wolbachia, they are not able to carry the viruses that cause dengue, zika, chikungunya or yellow fever.
These mosquitoes, nicknamed Wolbitos, when they reproduce, pass the bacteria to new mosquitoes, meaning that fewer insects can transmit diseases to humans.
“We are working together with the state government [de Minas Gerais] so that we can ensure that this factory can expand, not only to the 22 municipalities that make up the Brumadinho basin, but to all municipalities in Minas Gerais, after Brazil and the Americas region”, said the Secretary of Health Surveillance and Ministry environment, Ethel Maciel.
“The Ministry of Health has an expansion plan. This is the first biofactory, besides the one in Rio de Janeiro. We will have [ainda] one in Ceará, another in Paraná and an expansion plan so that the technology of this mosquito, which has a bacteria that prevents the transmission of the disease, can then replace the population of mosquitoes that do not have the bacteria”, he informed.
Niterói Experience
In 2015, the Wolbachia method began to be implemented as a pilot project in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro. Last year, the municipality became the first in the country with 100% of the territory covered by the method. The numbers indicate a reduction of around 70% in cases of dengue, 60% of chikungunya and 40% of zika in areas where entomological intervention took place.
In 2015, the year the project was implemented, 158 cases of dengue were confirmed in Niterói. In 2016, there were 71 and, in 2017, 87. In 2018, there was an increase to 224 cases, but the number fell to 61 the following year. From 2020, with 85 cases, the curve continued to fall, with 16 records in 2021 and 12 in 2022. In 2023, 55 cases of dengue were confirmed in the city.
Medium-term effect
Developed in Australia, the Wolbachia method is used in Brazil because the country has been, since 2014, one of the 11 countries that make up the World Mosquito Program. In Brazil, the initiative is led by Fiocruz, with funding from the ministry in partnership with local governments. Currently, the cities of Campo Grande, Petrolina (PE), Belo Horizonte, Niterói (RJ) and Rio de Janeiro are included in the research.
Later this year, the method should reach six more cities: Natal, Uberlândia (MG), Presidente Prudente (SP), Londrina and Foz do Iguaçu, both in Paraná, and Joinville (SC). The technology, however, does not have immediate results and needs to be associated with other actions to combat diseases transmitted by the Aedes aegypti.
The city of Rio de Janeiro, for example, despite having received the Wolbachia method, is in a different situation than Niterói and even declared an emergency due to the increase in hospitalizations due to suspected dengue. In Rio, Wolbito was only released in some regions, and not throughout the city, as in Niterói.
