Hong Kong will trial a “mosquito-to-control-mosquito” strategy next year, under which the insect males are infected with bacteria to prevent their offspring from reaching maturity, following the city’s first local dengue fever case in over a year. Announcing the strategy on Sunday, Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene Donald Ng Man-kit said the government would…
The first local case of dengue fever recorded for the first time in more than a year in Hong Kong indicates that undiagnosed imported cases could lead to an outbreak in the coming months, a health official has warned, while stressing that the risk was preventable. The warning by Albert Au Ka-wing, head of the…
A UN agency and a charity established by former Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying have agreed to strengthen collaboration on public health projects, following talks in Switzerland. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, met GX Foundation chairman Leung and CEO Emily Chan Ying-yang in Geneva, the charity said in a social…
Global warming and globalisation have significantly increased the number of imported dengue fever cases in Hong Kong, health experts have said, with annual infections rising from dozens to more than 100 in the past two decades. This rapid increase has occurred alongside a growing risk of mosquito-borne diseases in the city. So far this year,…
Just before news broke in July of a chikungunya outbreak in Foshan, Guangdong province, I was on a field trip with a group of students in Pok Fu Lam. It was a sultry day; recent rains had increased the humidity. It was impossible not to sweat. As we made our first stop to begin an…
Hong Kong is developing a rapid test for chikungunya fever that could detect the disease at an earlier stage, as part of the city’s efforts to harness technology to combat the public health risk. Ricky Chiu Yin-to, founder and CEO of biotechnology company Phase Scientific, said on Monday that his team was working to develop…
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — An outbreak of the chikungunya virus in China has prompted authorities to take preventive measures from mosquito nets and clouds of disinfectant, threatening fines for people who fail to disperse standing water and even deploying drones to hunt down insect breeding grounds. More than 7,000 cases of the disease have been…
Hong Kong should step up efforts to fight mosquitoes after the city recorded its second-longest black rainstorm warning, experts have warned, with data showing the breeding of the pest that can transmit chikungunya fever is “fairly extensive” in 70 per cent of the city’s surveyed areas. A black rainstorm warning lasted 11 hours and 15…
Health authorities in Hong Kong have not ruled out the possibility of local chikungunya fever transmissions after the city recorded its first imported case of the mosquito-borne disease since 2019, involving a boy who returned from outbreak-hit Foshan in mainland China. The Centre for Health Protection confirmed the case on Saturday, weeks after a surge…
Health authorities in Hong Kong will not rule out the possibility of local chikungunya fever transmissions after the city recorded its first imported case since 2019, involving a boy who returned from outbreak-hit Foshan in mainland China. The Centre for Health Protection confirmed the case of the disease on Saturday, weeks after a surge in…