An outbreak of the Chikungunya virus, accompanied by the spread of dengue fever, is currently ongoing in China’s Guangdong province, with over 3,000 cases reported in the city of Foshan alone. Up to 7,000 cases have been reported. The Chinese government has issued testing and mosquito control measures to curb the pandemic. The virus is being spread via Aedes mosquitoes and causes fever, severe joint pain, swelling, muscle pain and cause complications in the nervous system. The virus is rarely fatal and most patients recover fully from infection in ten days.
The city of Foshan was hit with a bout of torrential rain during the past two days. In June, the city and the province of Guangdong were also hit with heavy rainfall. In May, heavy rainfall created landslides that caused several fatalities. Foshan and Guangdong have a subtropical climate and are currently in the middle of the typhoon and monsoon season, which causes better conditions for mosquitos to thrive.
A fact sheet about the virus by the World Health Organisation can be found here.
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