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 just some weeks. As NPR’s Jonathan Lambert reviews, well being officers there are combating the mosquitoes that unfold the illness and implementing some COVID-19-era techniques.
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 on the lookout for stagnant water the place the bugs can breed, and contaminated people are being compelled to isolate themselves. To Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for world well being on the Council on International Relations, the strikes are…
YYANZHONG: Paying homage to COVID-19 techniques.
LAMBERT: Chikungunya is nowhere close to as lethal as COVID-19. It is also not as contagious, since it could possibly solely unfold by means of 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 good for mosquito breeding.
LAMBERT: If you happen to get bitten by an contaminated mosquito, the virus normally begins to trigger signs inside a couple of days. Fever, bumpy rashes and fatigue are widespread, however essentially the most notable symptom is joint ache. Laurie Silva is a virologist on the College of Pittsburgh.
LAURIE SILVA: When you have got that joint ache, it has been known as debilitating.
LAMBERT: She says individuals typically 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 every 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 isn’t any antiviral remedy for chikungunya and docs normally prescribe relaxation, hydration and ache medicine. There are two vaccines for the illness, however they are not extensively obtainable. For that cause, mosquito management is actually the very best prevention, therefore, China’s draconian management measures. Nonetheless, Huang says that a few of these measures are probably overkill.
HUANG: The method is disproportionate to a vector-borne illness with very low mortality. I believe a extra focused and a much less coercive method 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 elements 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 may develop into extra widespread. Jonathan Lambert, NPR Information.
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