Dengue: One dead in three-month period from January to March, nearly 30% drop in case numbers

SINGAPORE – One person died from dengue in the period between January and March, during which 410 dengue cases were recorded.

That is a 29.2 per cent drop from the 579 dengue cases reported in the previous quarter.

The National Environment Agency (NEA), in its quarterly dengue surveillance data published on April 21, identified 24 dengue clusters in the January to March period – about half the number compared with the previous quarter.

Out of the 24 clusters, 22 in the same period were closed, when there were no more dengue cases.

The number of mosquito breeding spots also fell by about 36 per cent.

In 2025, there were 4,036 dengue cases in Singapore – a 7-year low for Singapore, and a 70 per cent drop from the 13,651 recorded in 2024.

Associate Professor Justin Chu, from the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine department of microbiology and immunology, said the drop in dengue cases can be attributed to a combination of factors.

These include “herd immunity, environmental and epidemiological conditions, and robust vector control strategies”, said Prof Chu, in response to queries from The Straits Times.

“NEA’s Project Wolbachia is emerging as a particularly impactful and scalable intervention in Singapore’s dengue control ecosystem,” he added.

Project Wolbachia, which started in 2016, is an initiative aimed at combatting the spread of dengue by controlling the Aedes aegypti mosquito population in Singapore.

The project, which will cover more than 800,000 households in Singapore by October, involves releasing lab-grown male mosquitoes infected with the Wolbachia bacteria in high-risk dengue areas.

When these mosquitoes – which do not bite – mate with females, the eggs produced will not hatch, leading to a smaller mosquito population that lowers the risk of dengue transmission over time.

Even so, it does not eliminate the need for continued vigilance and control efforts, Prof Chu added.