Project Wolbachia turns 10: Dengue cases in Tampines fell from 1,200 in 2020 to 77 in 2025
Project Wolbachia took a walk down memory lane on Saturday (Oct 31), returning to where it began a decade ago — in Tampines — as the initiative commemorates its 10th year.Singapore is the first in the world to deploy the Wolbachia technology in a high-rise, high-density tropical environment for the suppression of the Aedes aegypti mosquito population.It began in 2016 at three pilot sites - Braddell Heights, Tampines West and Nee Soon East - and now covers over 840,000, or about 53 per cent, of all households in the country.Explaining the project, the National Environment Agency (NEA) said in a media factsheet that when male Wolbachia-Aedes mosquitos mate with urban female Aedes aegypti mosquitos that do not carry Wolbachia, the resulting eggs do not hatch.This, in turn, reduces the Aedes aegypti mosquito population by up to 90 per cent at release sites, with residents in those areas experiencing over 70 per cent reduction in dengue risk.The male Wolbachia-Aedes mosquitoes do not bite or spread diseases.