Singapore-One of the country’s weapons in the fight against dengue, Project Wolbachia will be expanded to 1,400 Housing Commission blocks from July, and the Ministry of Sustainability and Fisheries Grace Fu will be on Wednesday (15 June). Announced.
This means that the project will cover more than 300,000 units, almost double the current 160,000 units and about 31 percent of Singapore’s HDB blocks.
Mr. Fu gave a keynote speech at the 5th Asia Dengue Fever Summit hosted by the Asia Dengue Fever and Action Group held at the Orchard Hotel from June 13th to 15th.
The first summit in Singapore brought together more than 200 clinicians, researchers, government public health leaders and policy makers from across Asia to discuss the region’s dengue management strategy.
Hu said that while the main strategy for combating dengue here is eradication of the roots, “ordinary business” is not an option given the growing threat of vector infections in Singapore. He said that a method such as Project Wolbachia is needed.
Launched in 2016, the project will include the release of male Aedes aegypti infected with Wolbachia in selected locations. When a female Aedes aegypti, which is not infected with bacteria, mates with a male, it lays eggs that do not hatch and reduces the population of Aedes aegypti. Here it is the main vector of dengue fever.
Hu said the results of the project have been promising so far, and the expansion of the trial will allow authorities to understand the impact of large-scale multi-site deployments.
With this extension, Project Wolbachia will be expanded from the current 5 sites to a total of 13 sites.
To help expand the project, she said, by the end of this year, the National Environment Agency will increase the number of male Wolbachia-Aedes aegypti produced weekly from the current 2 million to 5 million.
He added that good environmental management to prevent mosquito breeding is the basis of NEA’s dengue control program and is complemented by strong partnerships across the public, private and people sectors. ..
According to the minister, people living in Singapore today are one-tenth more likely to get dengue fever than people living here in the 1960s.
But this also means that herd immunity to dengue fever is diminished here, she said.
