The mosquito-borne virus has crossed the Taiwan Strait from southern China, the place confirmed circumstances of chikungunya prime 8,000.
Taiwan has reported its first confirmed case of chikungunya fever, imported from China, the place a historic outbreak of the mosquito-borne virus is below method.
Chikungunya has swept via southern China in latest weeks, primarily within the manufacturing hub of Foshan on the Pearl River Delta, with circumstances rising to greater than 8,000. The outbreak is the biggest on file, in keeping with Roger Hewson, virus surveillance lead at the UK’s Wellcome Sanger Institute.
Taiwan’s Facilities for Illness Management (CDC) stated on Friday that the chikungunya virus was detected in a Taiwanese lady who had travelled to Foshan and returned to Taiwan on July 30.
It was the primary case of its type detected to this point in 2025, although greater than a dozen circumstances have been beforehand detected and originated in Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.
The CDC has raised its journey advisory for China’s Guangdong province, the epicentre of the outbreak, to degree 2 out of three, urging travellers to make use of “enhanced precautions”.
The virus can result in excessive fever, rash, headache, nausea and fatigue lasting as much as seven days, and muscle and joint ache that may final for a number of weeks.
“The outbreak in Foshan and surrounding areas of Guangdong province has unfolded quickly and at a scale unprecedented for China,” Hewson stated in an announcement.
The surge is because of restricted immunity in China and “environmental suitability” for the virus-carrying Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, which breed in stagnant water, he stated.
Chinese language well being authorities have responded with containment methods starting from household-level inspections and enforced mattress nets, to drone-based fogging and even quarantines, paying homage to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hewson stated.
The Related Press information company reported that residents of Foshan could be fined as a lot as as much as 10,000 RMB ($1,400) for protecting water in outside containers – a preferred breeding floor for mosquitoes.
The outbreak follows greater than a month of typhoons and heavier-than-usual monsoon rains in China.
Final week, Hong Kong – positioned some 180km (110 miles) from Foshan – was hit by its worst August rainstorm since information started in 1884.
Chinese language state media stated regardless of the historic variety of chikungunya circumstances, the outbreak seems to have lastly peaked.
Foshan reported 2,892 native infections from July 27 to August 2, however no extreme or deadly circumstances, in keeping with China’s state-run Xinhua information company.
“The latest surge has been initially contained, with a downward pattern in newly reported circumstances throughout the province,” Kang Min, director of the infectious illness management institute on the Guangdong Provincial Middle for Illness Management and Prevention, informed Xinhua.
