China's Guangdong moves swiftly to combat Chikungunya

GUANGZHOU -- China's Guangdong province has launched targeted measures, including citywide cleanup efforts, to effectively curb the spread of Chikungunya fever, a mosquito-borne viral disease.

Data released on Monday by the local health bureau of Foshan, which is the city that has been hit hardest by the outbreak in Guangdong, shows that 78 percent of affected villages and communities have seen their mosquito density indexes drop to safe levels through water cleanup and mosquito eradication efforts.

Foshan, which has a population of over 9 million, has designated 53 hospitals as treatment centers and expanded its number of mosquito-proof isolation beds to 7,220 to provide care for confirmed cases. As of Sunday, local health authorities had reported a total of 5,155 confirmed cases of Chikungunya fever.

To eliminate mosquitoes at their source, Foshan's Chancheng district has released over 5,000 larva-eating fish into the city's lakes since last Wednesday.

In Chancheng's Longcun village, drones have been used to detect accumulated water on rooftops, storage sheds and other hard-to-reach areas where mosquito larvae are likely to breed. Covering the entire 2.5-square-kilometer village in just two hours, the operation provided data to prompt residents to clean up potential breeding sites.

On Thursday, Guangdong appealed to all of its residents to clean up accumulated water by inspecting containers and water-cultured plants, and to eradicate mosquitoes and avoid mosquito bites by using screens for doors and windows, and by wearing long-sleeved clothing.

Chikungunya fever is an acute infectious disease caused by the Chikungunya virus, with clinical symptoms including fever, rashes and joint pains. The virus is transmitted to humans through bites from infected mosquitoes.

"There is no evidence of the human-to-human transmission of Chikungunya," Duan Leilei, a researcher at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a news conference on Wednesday.

First identified in 1952, Chikungunya has since been reported in over 110 countries across Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe.

Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, has kicked off a weeklong mosquito eradication campaign, which will run from July 26 to August 1.

From July 20 to July 26, Guangdong reported 2,940 new local cases of Chikungunya, with 2,882 cases occurring in Foshan. The reported cases have been mild, with no severe or fatal cases seen to date, according to the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday.