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by JimDabell 798 days ago
They are also using Wolbachia programmes to reduce mosquito populations:

https://www.nea.gov.sg/corporate-functions/resources/researc...

Dengue is just a difficult thing to fight. In 2020, more people died of dengue in Singapore than from Covid (32 dengue deaths vs 29 Covid deaths).

2 comments

> Dengue is just a difficult thing to fight

Singapore had 8k cases in 2022. Brazil has 3 million cases of dengue in 2024. Is not the same thing.

Why would you quote figures like that without adjusting them for population? Brazil has 40x the population of Singapore.
0.16% of Singapore's population had Dengue in 2022. 1.4% of Brazil's population had Dengue in 2023.
Are there any significant differences in the geography of Brazil that could also contribute to some of the difference in infection rates?
Very. In simple terms there's just a lot more of Brazil to deal with.

Brazil is a massive 8,514,215 km2 while Singapore is just a tiny 734 km2 island which is very highly urbanised and developed and doesn't have a significant rural population (hence the description of "city-state").

Its small enough that you can monitor mozzie levels at the individual building level, and locate and deal with breeding spots at that level too. That might also be practical in urban areas in Brazil, but for rural areas I suspect is not feasible?

> but for rural areas I suspect is not feasible?

Aedes aegypti is an urban mosquito. Degue is an urban disease. The big difference between Brazil and Singapore is sanitation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in...

Oh yes it was Wolbachia I was thinking of, not sterile males.