SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): Dengue cases in Singapore are at their lowest in seven years, with about 4,000 cases recorded so far in 2025, according to data from the National Environment Agency (NEA).
There were 3,990 cases of dengue reported here as at Dec 26 – a drop of about 70 per cent from the 13,651 cases seen in 2024.
This is the lowest number of cases seen here since 2018, when 3,282 cases were recorded.
There have been four deaths from the disease reported so far in 2025, compared with 17 in 2024.
In May, NEA attributed the lower number of dengue cases in part to efforts such as Project Wolbachia – an initiative to control the Aedes mosquito population here through the release of lab-grown male mosquitoes infected with the Wolbachia bacteria.
Project Wolbachia has “very likely” contributed to the decline in dengue numbers in 2025, said Professor Hsu Li Yang, vice-dean of global health at the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health.
He noted that the initiative, which now covers more than 580,000 households, has been scaled up quite substantially over the past year.
However, Prof Hsu added that it is difficult to judge how much of a role the project has played, given how wildly case numbers have fluctuated in recent years.
Dengue cases here hit a record high of 35,315 in 2020, before falling to 5,258 the following year. In 2022, the number of infections rose again to 32,325, then decreased to 9,949 in 2023.
Project Wolbachia’s contribution to lowering dengue numbers here is likely to become clearer over the next two to three years, he said.
