Since July, the southern manufacturing powerhouse of Guangdong province has reported over 10,000 cases. The city of Foshan has been the epicenter, at one point recording more than 600 new infections daily—a figure that surpasses the total number of cases documented across all of mainland China in the previous decade.
Faced with this surge, officials have launched a "detect and eliminate" campaign mirroring the top-down approach used during the pandemic. This includes:
- Dispatching workers to spray insecticide in affected areas multiple times a day.
- Mandating that suspected patients promptly report their cases and comply with quarantine rules.
- Enlisting grassroots efforts to clear stagnant water where mosquitoes breed.
The outbreak has been driven by a fast-spreading virus strain and warmer weather, a trend experts link to climate change accelerating the global spread of infectious diseases like dengue and malaria. According to the Pan American Health Organization, about 270,000 chikungunya cases have been recorded globally this year, resulting in at least 110 deaths.
The response in China has been a subject of public debate. While some citizens online have praised the swift, large-scale action, others have criticized the measures as overkill, reminiscent of the heavy-handed Covid-era controls.
There is no specific antiviral drug for chikungunya. Treatment focuses on relieving symptoms, which include severe joint pain (the name means "to bend over"), muscle pain, headache, and rash. The CDC advises prevention through mosquito repellent, wearing long sleeves, and considering vaccination before travel to affected areas.
While China's strict controls have begun to curb the outbreak in Foshan, the event underscores a larger global challenge: climate change is expanding the habitats of virus-carrying mosquitoes, putting more of the world's population at risk.