The Macau Health Bureau (SSM) is urging residents to stay alert to the threat of chikungunya fever after considering the ongoing outbreak of the disease in Foshan City’s Shunde District in neighbouring Guangdong Province.
An SSM statement last night noted that Shunde District’s ongoing local transmissions of chikungunya fever were triggered by a case imported from outside the mainland earlier this month. As of Tuesday, the statement noted, the district had recorded 478 confirmed cases of chikungunya fever, most of which occurred in Lecong Town, Beijiao Town, and Chencun Town.
The statement said that all of the chikungunya fever patients in Shunde District had mild symptoms.
The statement also said that Macau recorded two and three imported cases of chikungunya fever in 2013 and 2019 respectively, all of them from Southeast Asian countries, adding that none of the five cases were serious or fatal. Since then, the statement underlined, Macau has so far not recorded any cases of chikungunya fever.
The statement noted that chikungunya fever is a mosquito-borne disease, with its symptoms and transmission channels similar to dengue fever.
Details in English about chikungunya fever can be found at: https://www.chp.gov.hk/en/healthtopics/content/24/6122.html.
Poster courtesy of WHO
