Chikungunya virus has continued to spread in Guangdong Province in southern China this fall, with Jiangmen city becoming the new hotspot of the epidemic.
The Chinese communist regime has adopted coercive measures to deal with the outbreak, which have been questioned and criticized by local residents and medical experts.
The Guangdong Provincial Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Sept. 28 that from Sept. 21 to Sept. 27, 3,153 new local cases of chikungunya infections were reported across the province. Jiangmen accounted for 2,927 of these cases, Foshan 78, Guangzhou 68, Shenzhen 22, and Zhuhai 13. No severe cases or deaths were reported, according to state media.
From Sept. 14 to Sept. 20, officials reported 2,238 cases of chikungunya fever in Jiangmen, and local authorities have launched a Level III response to the public health emergency, as announced at a Sept. 28 press briefing.
In China, there are four official response levels: Level I (extremely serious), Level II (serious), Level III (major), and Level IV (general).
Chikungunya fever is a viral disease mainly transmitted to humans by mosquitoes. Its symptoms are similar to those of dengue fever. Patients usually experience fever, severe joint pain, muscle pain, headache, fatigue, and rashes.
Deaths from the disease are rare but do occur, especially among vulnerable populations such as those with underlying health conditions.
There is no specific antiviral treatment for chikungunya.
Mosquito Eradication—a Political Campaign
The Jiangmen Municipal Chinese Communist Party (CCP) standing committee held a meeting on Sept. 26 about the chikungunya outbreak, stating that mosquito eradication is currently “the most important political task,” and urging full mobilization and the participation of all of society. They vowed that “at all costs, we must eliminate adult mosquitoes and kill mosquito eggs within three to four days” before the Chinese regime’s “national day” on Oct. 1, according to state-controlled media.Just days after Typhoon Ragasa hit Guangdong on Sept. 24, local residents’ lives were seriously affected by the regime’s mass mosquito-eradication campaign.
Mrs. Liang, a resident of Jiangmen who didn’t give her full name for safety concerns, told The Epoch Times on Sept. 30 that “they’ve been spraying pesticide to kill mosquitoes, and the smell is very strong and unpleasant. When the community office staff come to do that, I have to leave my home to escape the strong smell.”
She said that “the chikungunya outbreak in the city is out of control,” adding that people who got infected suffer from fever, and “it also causes joint pain.”
Mr. Wang, another resident of Jiangmen who gave only his last name for safety concerns, told The Epoch Times on Sept. 30 that “hospitals in our area are all full. They are filled with patients who were bitten by mosquitoes and developed a fever.”
“Several markets, including the wet market, have been shut down. Potted plants are not allowed on balconies and rooftops. They’ve taken the plants away. You can’t even grow grass or anything like that,” he said of the local control measures.
“The entire city is eradicating mosquitoes. They are spraying chemicals, and the whole place is covered in mist. People can’t bear the smell of the chemicals,” Mr. Wang said.
As early as July, Chinese experts expressed concerns to mainland Chinese media that mosquitoes in Guangdong Province had already developed resistance to pesticides because of the government’s repeated mass spraying in their attempt to eradicate mosquitoes to prevent dengue fever.
The chikungunya outbreak in Guangdong Province has been going on for two or three months. “This is quite strange,” Sean Lin, assistant professor in the Biomedical Science Department at Feitian College and former U.S. army microbiologist, told The Epoch Times on Sept. 30.
“For most mosquito-borne diseases, sufficient mosquito control campaigns generally produce rapid results,” he said, expressing similar concern that “the mosquito population in Guangdong is becoming more adaptable to the pesticides currently used.”
Lin raised another concern that “other infectious diseases including mosquito-borne diseases are spreading at the same time in Guangdong, such as dengue fever or meningococcal meningitis.”
“I think we must first identify the pathogen of the outbreak. If this issue isn’t resolved, it will be difficult to effectively control the epidemic,” he said.
Dr. Jonathan Liu, a professor at Canada Public College and director of Liu’s Wisdom Healing Center, is concerned that the authorities in Jiangmen “are treating mosquito control as a top political issue.”
Releasing Tens of Millions of Lab Mosquitoes
The Epoch Times previously reported that the Chinese regime has been releasing tens of millions of special lab-treated mosquitoes monthly since as early as May, two months before the chikungunya outbreak, as a new way of mosquito control to prevent dengue fever and other mosquito-borne diseases. The lab-treated male mosquitoes would mate with the wild female mosquito population to produce unviable eggs in a population-control technique known as Wolbachia transinfection—through which the reproductive compatibility of male mosquitoes is altered by an infection with the common, naturally occurring Wolbachia bacterium. The labs, known as mosquito factories, feed sheep blood to the large number of lab mosquitoes.
Since August, the authorities have doubled down on the Wolbachia method, releasing more lab-treated mosquitoes in an attempt to combat the chikungunya outbreak.
However, the method has some flaws. If infected lab females are not separated and instead released into the wild, they can continue to successfully breed and spread disease.
Forced Quarantine
Chinese authorities have continued their restrictive methods similar to those imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, including forced quarantine.On Sept. 29, Jiangmen officials posted an announcement regarding the chikungunya outbreak on a government website, stating that all residents “must accept the investigation, testing, sample collection, isolation treatment, and other prevention and control measures of infectious diseases by disease prevention and control agencies and medical institutions.” The announcement also said that no one can refuse to be quarantined.
Mrs. Liang said that she is wearing a mosquito-repellent bracelet always because “if you are bitten by a mosquito, you'll be taken [by authorities] to a quarantine site.”
Lin said to prevent chikungunya, residents need to take simple measures such as installing screens and mosquito nets, and wearing long-sleeved clothing.
As to why the authorities are “taking such extreme measures,” Lin suspected that “there are other infectious diseases circulating in the area besides chikungunya.” He said that “exploiting the public through residents’ self-paid forced quarantine and nucleic acid testing during the outbreak is likely not the sole reason. Therefore, this situation is rather strange and warrants further international attention.”
Dr. Liu said that the Chinese regime’s disease control, including during COVID-19, was orchestrated by the CCP leader. “The lockdown lasted a long time, leaving many people in critical condition. Some were unable to escape fires, and some even starved to death. It’s a human rights disaster and tragedy.”
“When facing an epidemic, normal countries just follow medical principles and have done a good job of epidemic prevention and control. There’s no need to resort to coercive measures [for the Chinese regime] to treat the Chinese people.”
