Macau recorded this year’s fifth imported case of chikungunya fever yesterday, the Health Bureau (SSM) announced in a statement last night.
According to the statement, the patient is a 70-year-old local woman who lives in Block 3 of the Chino Plaza residential estate in Fai Chi Kei district.
The woman, a retiree, visited Lecong Town in Foshan City’s Shunde District in neighbouring Guangdong Province between July 14 and 18. After returning to Macau, the statement said, she came down with joint pain in her right leg on Friday last week, but she merely took medicine to relieve the symptoms without going to see a doctor.
However, the statement said, the woman came down with a rash on her right knee and right arm on Sunday, after which she sought treatment at the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre yesterday where she has been hospitalised.
According to the statement, she was diagnosed with chikungunya fever by the Health Bureau’s Public Health Laboratory yesterday.
The woman was in a stable condition and still undergoing hospital treatment at the time of last night’s statement.
Foshan City in neighbouring Guangdong Province has been hit by an outbreak of chikungunya fever since early this month, while over the past few days, chikungunya cases have been detected in more and more cities in the province.
According to the latest data from Guangdong’s health authorities, the province had recorded 4,824 confirmed cases of chikungunya fever as of Saturday, with most of them having been reported in Foshan City. Guangdong’s health authorities underlined that all of the chikungunya fever patients in the province so far merely had mild symptoms. 
Caption: Cryoelectron microscopy reconstruction of chikungunya virus, dated December 8, 2013 – Image courtesy of A2-33/Wikimedia Commons
