KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry is looking at the implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in its efforts to curb the dengue epidemic.
Its Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad (pix) said it is hoped AI would serve as a preemptive measure to curbing the epidemic.
“With it’s (AI) help, we will be able to predict the probability of the mosquitos growth in numbers based on local demographics.”
“It is one of the methods that we are working on and we are currently conducting a pilot project in Penang,“ said Dzulkefly during the launch of Aedes mosquitoes injected with Wolbachia bacteria in an effort to stamp out the disease, at the Sri Rakyat Aparments in Bukit Jalil here.
Dzulkefly said releasing Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes could also reduce dependence on the use of insecticides to control the mosquito population and also combat the rising numbers of dengue cases.
“Insecticides may have other side effects,“ he said adding there was a 92.4% increase in dengue cases nationwide within the first six months of 2019.
Dzulkefly said there were 62,421 dengue cases between Jan 1 and June 29 this year with 93 deaths compared to 32,435 cases with 53 deaths in the same period last year.
According to Dzulkefly, Malaysia will be the second country in the world to adopt the method of “fighting fire with fire”, after Australia.
The initiative came to fruition following a successful pilot project in 2017 which was carried out in eight areas in Selangor, that saw reductions of between 50% and 80% in dengue cases at each location.
The programme saw the release of 180 containers containing Aedes mosquito eggs infected with the bacteria at 11 locations in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Selangor, which were released in phases.
The Wolbachia bacteria stops the dengue virus from developing within the mosquito, which then directly stops spread from bites.
Wolbachia also spreads through the process of mating. When an infected female mosquito mates with an uninfected male, they will produce Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes.
When a Wolbachia infected male mosquito mates with an uninfected female, the eggs will not hatch.
Dzulkefly said, wolbachia does not pose any danger to humans.
The programme will see an expansion to other states in September.
