We have been awarded a new grant to work on mechanistic modelling of dengue epidemics in Singapore. The three-year project is funded by the National University of Singapore’s Reimagine grant scheme, and will be a collaborative effort with Hannah Clapham and Natasha Howard at the School of Public Health, as well as Duane Loh in the Department of Biological Sciences / Department of Physics.

Dengue is the world’s most prevalent mosquito-borne viral disease, and outbreaks are becoming increasingly severe. In 2020, Singapore saw its worst epidemic in years, with over 34,000 reported cases and dozens of deaths. What factors drive the severity of an epidemic? What mitigation measures could be most effective for managing future epidemics? We will be tackling these questions with mechanistic mathematical models informed by epidemiological data. This will complement existing work on statistical modelling of dengue epidemics in Singapore, and inform epidemic management policy in the coming years.