Senior officials of the Ministry of Health say the full implementation of the Wolbachia mosquito control programme and the introduction of a dengue vaccine in Sri Lanka will take considerable time.
According to ministry sources, preliminary preparations are currently underway to launch the Wolbachia programme in September.
As part of the initial phase, Sri Lanka must establish a specialised research laboratory and obtain mosquito eggs containing Wolbachia bacteria.
Under the planned process, mosquito eggs collected in Sri Lanka will be sent to Australia, where the Wolbachia bacteria will be introduced through specialised laboratory procedures. Officials say this process takes more than six months to complete.
If the programme proceeds as planned, the release of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes into the environment is expected to begin in 2027.
Meanwhile, ministry sources said the preliminary evaluation for registering the supplier of the proposed dengue vaccine is currently being carried out at the ministerial level as part of the vaccine procurement process.
