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EpidemicChikungunya cases are multiplying in China
The province of Canton in the south of the country has identified more than 7000 cases in recent weeks. The authorities have taken measures.
Insecticide has been sprayed to eradicate mosquitoes, vectors of chikungunya, as here in the industrial city of Foshan. 111582484021
Imago/VCGMore than 7,700 people have been infected with chikungunya, in recent weeks, in the province of Canton in southern China, reports an article in the Chinese Association for Science and Technology, widely relayed by Chinese State Media. Local authorities have been encouraged to take measures to slow down its spread.
Most of the cases were recorded in the industrial city of Foshan, where 2770 people were contaminated between July 27 and August 2, according to the local disease control office. Dozens of infections have also been detected in the neighboring town of Canton, and a first case was reported on Saturday in the territory of Hong Kong.
“The rapid acceleration of the epidemic has been controlled early,” said Kang Min, an official of the Disease Control Office in the province of Canton. But “complex and severe challenges” persist, he added, in particular because of the high risk of imported cases as well as rain and typhoons that promote the proliferation of mosquitoes.
Patients hospitalized
The officials of the province agreed, during a meeting on Saturday, wanting to “do everything to win the war of annihilation of the epidemic”. They underlined the need to “mobilize the public” to fight against the conditions favorable to the reproduction of mosquitoes, by picking up for example empty containers or by cleaning the stagnant waters.
Images taken up by the Chinese Nouvelle state agency show patients with chikungunya lying on beds surrounded by mosquito nets. But other measures seem more drastic.
Some patients were “forced to go to the hospital”, and agents would have entered housing without the consent of their inhabitants, in search of stagnant waters, according to the “New York Times”.
Private electricity in a punitive basis
On images published by the state media and local authorities, helmeted and masked agents spray insecticides in parks and green spaces, where mosquitoes can proliferate. Provincial authorities have also threatened with fines of up to 1000 yuan (112 Swiss francs) companies not taking sufficient measures against the reproduction of mosquitoes.
According to a publication on social networks, some Foshan residents have been deprived of electricity for not having respected the prevention rules.
Then, of Issan, tzíssacco?
Chikungunya fever – a term from a language spoken in southern Tanzania – is caused by a human -transmitted virus by infected mosquitoes. Most cases are generally identified in Africa, Asia and America. Symptoms include fever and joint pain, which can persist for a while but are rarely fatal. Two chikungunya vaccines have been approved in several countries but are not yet widely used.
– Should we worry? –
The United States recommends increased caution to travelers in the areas concerned in China.
However, the situation differs largely from the Pandemic of Covid-19, during which the Chinese Staff had imposed strict and massive confinements which had aroused the dissatisfaction of part of the population.
Chikungunya is also not transmitted between humans and is only very rarely fatal.
Chinese authorities insisted that the disease was “avoidable, controllable and treatable”.
The World Health Organization has not issued any specific recommendations concerning this increase in cases in China.
