In recent years, Singapore has chosen to use mosquitoes to control mosquitoes, and established a mosquito factory to cultivate a large number of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, commonly known as bacterial mosquitoes, with Wolbachia bacteria. About 200 million bacterial mosquitoes have been bred in Singapore and released in batches in some areas, hoping to fight Aedes aegypti, the main vector of dengue fever.
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Wolbachia is said to be effective in controlling the reproductive capacity of insects. The release of male mosquitoes with this bacteria makes it difficult for fertilized mosquito eggs to hatch, which in disguise helps to inhibit the spread of the disease.
Since 2019, the National Environment Agency (NEA) of the Singapore government has spent 5 million Singapore dollars (approximately HK$28.64 million) to set up a mosquito factory to implement Project Wolbachia to combat dengue fever.
The factory releases an average of 1.5 million to 2 million Wolbach-carrying male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes per week to curb the city’s population of Aedes aegypti.
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Since the project was launched in 2016, it has gone through five stages of on-site inspections. The authorities have also released this batch of mosquitoes in various areas of Singapore, involving regarding 1,800 housing authority blocks and 160,000 households in Singapore.
NEA observed a 98% inhibition rate of the bacterial mosquito once morest Aedes aegypti at study sites where Wolbachia-carrying Aedes aegypti had been released for at least 1 year, and a substantial 88% reduction in dengue cases in these areas.
The authorities intend to expand the scope of implementation of the plan, but emphasize that the Wolbachia plan is not a panacea, and dengue fever can be effectively controlled only by good environmental management and basic preventive measures such as ensuring that every household handles stagnant water.
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Responsible editor: Zheng Jinling
