Macau recorded this year’s third imported case of dengue fever yesterday, the Health Bureau (SSM) announced in a statement last night.
According to the statement, the patient is an 18-year-old female student from the mainland newly enrolled in the private Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST).
The student came to Macau from Yunnan province’s Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture with her family last Tuesday, when she checked into the university’s hall of residence, the statement said.
According to the statement, the student came down with a fever, headache and muscle pain on Friday, before seeking treatment at the University Hospital on the MUST campus on Sunday where she had her sample collected for a test. She was diagnosed with Grade I dengue fever by the Health Bureau’s Public Health Laboratory yesterday, the statement said.
Last night’s statement said that the student was in a stable condition, adding that she has meanwhile been discharged from the hospital and has returned to her room to rest.
According to the statement, the student has told the Health Bureau that after arriving in Macau, she had visited the Ruins of St Paul’s, and New Orient Landmark Hotel in Zape, but had not engaged in any outdoor activities.
The statement said that the student’s roommates had not come down with dengue symptoms. The statement also said that the student’s family members who travelled to Macau with her on Tuesday last week had already left Macau on Thursday, adding that none of them had been diagnosed with dengue fever as of yesterday.
However, the statement said, the student’s mother in Yunnan, who had not visited Macau recently, had also been diagnosed with dengue fever there.
The statement underlined that the Macau Health Bureau has classified the student’s case as an imported case of dengue fever after considering her travel history and the time of the onset of her symptoms, as well as its laboratory test results.
The Health Bureau has carried out measures to eradicate mosquitoes in the area around the patient’s place of residence in Macau, i.e., her hall of residence on the MUST campus.
In the pre-COVID-19 pandemic year of 2019, Macau recorded a total of 27 cases of dengue fever, all of which were classified as imported.
Macau recorded one imported case of dengue fever in 2020, which was detected in February. Macau did not record any cases of dengue fever in 2021 and 2022.
Macau was hit by a large-scale outbreak of dengue fever in 2001 when between August and October in that year the Health Bureau confirmed 1,148 cases of the viral disease transmitted by mosquitoes, including 29 patients who needed to be hospitalised.
Measures on the prevention of dengue fever and other information on the disease can be checked at: https://www.chp.gov.hk/en/healthtopics/content/24/19.html.
Chart: Wikimedia Commons
