Chikungunya fever: Hong Kong urged to step up mosquito control after rainstorm

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 minutes on Tuesday, the second-longest on record in Hong Kong. Three days earlier, the city recorded its first imported chikungunya fever case, a mosquito-borne disease, since 2019.

“There are more water bodies following heavy rain and they would not evaporate quickly. You would need extra efforts [afterwards] to apply larvicide sand and oil”, said Peter Leung Kwong-yuen, chairman of the Pest Control Personnel Association of Hong Kong.

Leung said that more waterlogging would occur after days of thunderstorms, although the heavy rain might curb the breeding of mosquitoes.

“We are not worried about the heavy rain, which could wash away the stagnant water,” Leung said, noting that mosquitoes usually prefered to breed in standing water.