Hong Kong fears new source for third locally acquired chikungunya infection

Hong Kong reported its third locally acquired chikungunya infection on Monday, with health authorities saying that there could be a second source of the disease as this case was not related to the two detected earlier.

Authorities said they would conduct health assessments on about 1,500 households near the patient’s home in Tsing Yi, but believed the transmission risk was not high due to its early detection and weather conditions that were unfavourable to mosquito breeding.

The Centre for Health Protection on Monday said that the newly confirmed case was a 45-year-old man who lived in Mount Haven, a private housing estate in Tsing Yi, and worked in Sheung Wan.

Albert Au Ka-wing, the head of the centre’s communicable disease branch, said the man exhibited symptoms of fever and joint pain on October 30 and was currently hospitalised at Princess Margaret Hospital in a stable condition.

The man had not travelled outside Hong Kong in the past three months.

“He has also not visited the Fung Tak Estate in Wong Tai Sin, where previous locally acquired cases have been reported,” Au said during a press briefing.