Greater than 8,000 have been contaminated, prompting the federal government to institute COVID-like restrictions
EMILY KWONG, HOST:
An outbreak of chikungunya illness in southern China has sickened over 8,000 individuals in only a few weeks. As NPR’s Jonathan Lambert studies, well being officers there are combating the mosquitoes that unfold the illness and implementing some COVID-19-era ways.
JONATHAN LAMBERT, BYLINE: Within the metropolis of Foshan, mosquitoes are public enemy No. 1. Troopers are fogging the streets with insecticide. Officers are going door to door searching for stagnant water the place the bugs can breed, and contaminated people are being pressured to isolate themselves. To Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for international well being on the Council on Overseas Relations, the strikes are…
YANZHONG HUANG: Paying homage to the COVID-19 ways.
LAMBERT: Chikungunya is nowhere close to as lethal as COVID-19. It is also not as contagious, since it might probably solely unfold via mosquito bites and never instantly from individual to individual. However chikungunya is uncommon in China, and this outbreak, which started in July, is the most important within the nation’s historical past and has potential to unfold.
HUANG: We’ve got a inhabitants with no immunity, and the atmosphere is right for mosquito breeding.
LAMBERT: Should you get bitten by an contaminated mosquito, the virus often begins to trigger signs inside just a few days. Fever, bumpy rashes and fatigue are widespread, however probably the most notable symptom is joint ache. Laurie Silva is a virologist on the College of Pittsburgh.
LAURIE SILVA: When you’ve gotten that joint ache, it has been referred to as debilitating.
LAMBERT: She says individuals usually cannot get away from bed as a result of it hurts an excessive amount of. That ache is definitely the supply of chikungunya’s identify. It means to bend upwards or to contort in Kimakonde, a language spoken in Tanzania the place the virus was first found. For many individuals, the ache that causes such contortions goes away after per week or two.
SILVA: However there’s a big proportion of individuals – and that ranges from examine, however common is about 50% – individuals then go on to have continual sickness, and that’s once they have extended joint ache that may final for weeks or months and, in some circumstances, even years.
LAMBERT: There is no antiviral therapy for chikungunya and docs often prescribe relaxation, hydration and ache remedy. There are two vaccines for the illness, however they don’t seem to be extensively out there. For that motive, mosquito management is de facto one of the best prevention, therefore, China’s draconian management measures. Nonetheless, Huang says that a few of these measures are seemingly overkill.
HUANG: The strategy is disproportionate to a vector-borne illness with very low mortality. I believe a extra focused and a much less coercive strategy would show equally efficient.
LAMBERT: Thus far this 12 months, greater than 240,000 circumstances of chikungunya have been reported worldwide, largely in South America, Africa and components of Southeast Asia. China’s outbreak continues to be comparatively small, however as local weather change makes extra locations mosquito pleasant, scientists suppose such outbreaks might turn into extra widespread. Jonathan Lambert, NPR Information.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional data.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts could range. Transcript textual content could also be revised to right errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org could also be edited after its authentic broadcast or publication. The authoritative document of NPR’s programming is the audio document.
