Project Wolbachia: 300 million mosquitoes released but not a silver bullet to stem out dengue, says NEA

SINGAPORE: A nondescript industrial building in Ang Mo Kio houses a lab that has bred more than 300 million mosquitos and is producing another 7 million every week.

But while the Wolbachia technology is effective in reducing the risk of dengue transmission, it has to be complemented by dengue control efforts, said Dr Ng. “This is made possible because of the technologies that we have developed in-house to be able to produce more mosquitoes efficiently,” she added.“They're still evolving, they're still improving. And that means that the process and the gadgets do have a lot of potential for improvement.”How are male Wolbachia-Aedes aegypti mosquitoes produced? NEA scientist Deng Lu shows CNA how it's done.

The environment here has been designed for the comfort of mosquito larvae, with controlled humidity, temperature and airflow. The scanner identifies the pupae based on their shoulder size or cephalothorax width – the females are bigger. Senior scientist Deng Lu manning the larvae counting machine. The device can count 26,000 larvae in three to five minutes.

Dr Duane Gubler, emeritus professor for the Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases at Duke-NUS Medical School, pointed out that Project Wolbachia is “still in an experimental phase” and has not been upscaled to the whole country.

Singapore Latest News, Singapore Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Masagos Zulkifli on Healthy Longevity Clinic research and servicesThe Healthy Longevity Clinic at Alexandra Hospital is essentially a research project to develop effective and practical interventions for the future. It is recruiting research participants. Currently, there are no plans for longevity services to be offered at polyclinics and other public hospitals. The Government hopes
Source: ChannelNewsAsia - 🏆 6. / 66 Read more »

Spain's women players to end boycott after federation commit to changeOLIVA, Spain — Spain's World Cup winning-squad agreed to end their boycott of the national team early on Wednesday (Sept 20) after the country's football federation (RFEF) said it would make 'immediate and profound changes' to its structure. The decision was reached around 5am (0300 GMT) after more than seven hours of meetings at a hotel in Oliva, an hour...
Source: asiaonecom - 🏆 10. / 59 Read more »

Solve Taylor Swift-themed puzzle games on Google to reveal vault titles for 1989 (Taylor's Version)Once 33 million puzzles have been collectively solved, a congratulatory audio message and animation from Taylor Swift will be released – where she will reveal her vault track titles.
Source: ChannelNewsAsia - 🏆 6. / 66 Read more »

US plans US$325 million Ukraine aid announcement for Zelenskyy visit, official saysNEW YORK: US President Joe Biden plans to announce a US$325 million military aid package for Ukraine on Thursday (Sep 21) to coincide with a visit to Washington by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a US official said on Wednesday on condition of anonymity. The weapons aid package was expected to include the s
Source: ChannelNewsAsia - 🏆 6. / 66 Read more »