Three districts in South China’s Foshan confirm 1,199 Chikungunya cases, mobilize local residents for mosquito eradication

Several districts in Foshan, South China’s Guangdong Province, updated chikungunya fever case numbers on Saturday. Shunde district alone had reported 1,161 confirmed mild cases as of Friday. Local authorities of affected districts initiated a district-wide mobilization of residents for intensive eradication of mosquito breeding habitats and adult specimens this weekend.

The health bureau of Shunde district, Foshan, announced on its official WeChat account on Saturday that the district had reported a cumulative total of 1,161 confirmed cases of Chikungunya fever as of Friday, all of which were mild.

On the same day, the health bureau of Nanhai district in Foshan also released updated figures, confirming 16 mild chikungunya cases as of Friday.

Additionally, Chancheng district reported 22 confirmed mild cases as of the same date, according to the official WeChat account of the district’s health bureau. 

To contain the outbreak, Shunde and Nanhai districts initiated public campaign on Saturday, reminding local residents of the emergence of an epidemic, with the primary transmission vector being Aedes albopictus, a type of mosquito, and warning of a continued rise in individual infection risk.

To prevent further spread of the epidemic, both districts called on all residents to eliminate mosquito breeding grounds and exterminate adult mosquitoes this weekend, the announcements stated.

Shunde district detected a local Chikungunya fever outbreak, traced to an imported case, during monitoring on July 8, Xinhua News Agency reported on Tuesday.

Chikungunya is a disease caused by the chikungunya virus, which is transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes, with large outbreaks and sporadic cases reported mostly in the Americas, Asia and Africa, and occasional smaller outbreaks in Europe, according to the official website of the World Health Organization in April, 2025.