Chikungunya virus has continued to spread in Guangdong Province in southern China this fall, with Jiangmen city becoming the new hot spot of the epidemic.
The Chinese communist regime in dealing with the outbreak has adopted coercive measures, which have been questioned and criticized by local residents and medical experts.
The Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Sept. 28 that from Sept. 21 to Sept. 27, 3,153 new local cases of chikungunya were reported across the province. Jiangmen accounted for 2,927 of these cases, and the remainder included 78 in Foshan, 68 in Guangzhou, 22 in Shenzhen, and 13 in Zhuhai. 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 news 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.
Previously, the outbreak hot spot was in Foshan in Guangdong Province, where the first chikungunya case was reported in July.
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. It 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 out of safety concerns, on Sept. 30 told The Epoch Times: “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.”
“The chikungunya outbreak in the city is out of control,” she said, 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 out of safety concerns, on Sept. 30 told The Epoch Times: “Hospitals in our area are all full. They are filled with patients who were bitten by mosquitoes and developed a fever.”
Describing the local control measures, he said: “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.
“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.”
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 its 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. “Other infectious diseases including mosquito-borne diseases are spreading at the same time in Guangdong, such as dengue fever or meningococcal meningitis,” he said.
“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.”
Jonathan Liu, professor at Canada Public College and director of Liu’s Wisdom Healing Center, said he is concerned that the authorities in Jiangmen “are treating mosquito control as a top political issue.”
“In reality, epidemic prevention is a medical issue, so they need to respect science and humanity,” he told The Epoch Times on Sept. 30. “There’s no need to make a big fuss about exterminating all mosquitoes.
“Firstly, it’s unrealistic. In nature, we know that there’s a balance between living beings. While mosquitoes are annoying, they also have value. It’s about a state of equilibrium. So if you eliminate all mosquitoes, wouldn’t that cause harm to other species and create an imbalance?”
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 method 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 are instead released into the wild, they can continue to successfully breed and spread disease.
Lin said that as these mosquito factories release large numbers of mosquitoes into the environment, “some female mosquitoes may escape during this process. And we don’t know if these lab-treated mosquitoes have undergone mutations that enhance their adaptability to the environment, making them more difficult to eradicate. This is also a concern.”
Forced Quarantine
Chinese authorities have continued 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.
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 said he suspected that “there are other infectious diseases circulating in the area besides chikungunya.”
“Exploiting the public through residents’ self-paid forced quarantine and nucleic acid testing during the outbreak is likely not the sole reason,“ he said. ”Therefore, this situation is rather strange and warrants further international attention.”
Liu said the Chinese regime’s disease control, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, was orchestrated by the CCP leadership.
“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,” he said.
“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 [for the Chinese regime] to resort to coercive measures to treat the Chinese people.”
Luo Ya and Li Zhi contributed to this report.
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