Project Wolbachia turns 10: Dengue cases in Tampines fell from 1,200 in 2020 to 77 in 2025
On 31 October Project Wolbachia marked a decade since its launch, holding a ceremony at the programme’s original site in Tampines. The initiative, based in Singapore, was the world’s first to use Wolbachia‑infected mosquitoes in a densely built tropical city to curb the Aedes aegypti population. It began in 2016 with three pilot locations: Braddell Heights, Tampines West and Nee Soon East. The deployment now covers more than 840,000 households, about 53 % of all residences. The National Environment Agency explained that male mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia, when they mate with local female Aedes aegypti, produce offspring that cannot reproduce effectively. This biological interference reduces overall mosquito numbers and limits dengue transmission. Tampines dengue cases fell from roughly 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.