China Battling Another Virus: Mosquito-Borne Chikungunya
Chinese authorities have decided to use some moves from their covid playbook in response.
I last reported on the disease known as chikungunya back in 2014, when there was a significant outbreak in South America.
Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne disease caused by the chikungunya virus (CHIKV), primarily transmitted to humans by infected Aedes mosquitoes. The disease is characterized by sudden high fever and severe joint pain, such that its name means “bent over.” Symptoms usually appear 2–12 days after a bite from an infected insect, and debilitating joint pain sometimes lasts for months or even years in some patients.
The Chikungunya virus outbreaks are now being reported in several regions across the globe, with a significant surge in southern China. Over 8,000 cases have been reported in China in the past month alone, primarily in the city of Foshan, marking the country’s largest outbreak of this particular pathogen to date.
Chinese authorities have decided to use some moves from their COVID playbook in response.
At building entrances in the city, workers spray residents with mosquito repellent before allowing them in. Community workers in red vests go door to door, inspecting homes and ordering residents to dump any stagnant water. Those who don’t cooperate could be fined or, in serious cases, face criminal charges for “obstructing the prevention of infectious diseases,” according to an illustrated government explainer.
At least five households have had their electricity cut for not cooperating, according to a notice issued by a neighborhood committee in the district of Guicheng.
When Covid-19 spread in China, the country imposed some of the world’s strictest measures — the much-hated zero Covid policy that involved mass testing, citywide lockdowns, mandatory quarantines and the constant tracking of people’s movements.
On RedNote, a popular social media platform, residents say they are being ordered by community workers to empty all containers of water, including water bowls for their dogs. Some complained that the policing was excessive.
Two residents who were reached by message on RedNote and did not want to be named out of fear of retaliation told The New York Times that workers entered their homes without their consent to search for stagnant water.
🇨🇳 BREAKING:
China imposes strict measures akin to those used during the Covid-19 pandemic in Guangdong province following over 7,000 cases of chikungunya, a mosquito-borne virus.
Transmitted through infected mosquito bites, chikungunya causes fever and severe, sometimes… pic.twitter.com/Dw1OC7a9Di
— SVS NEWS AGENCY (@svsnewsagency) August 5, 2025
China’s first case of Chikungunya was reported in 2008. Apparently, natural genetic mutations that helped the virus adapt to new types of mosquitoes and enhanced transmissibility have led to the current outbreak in the region.
The importation of CHIKV to mainland China was first detected in 2008. The genomic sequences of four of the imported viruses were identified, and phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that the sequences were clustered in the Indian Ocean group; however, seven amino acid changes were detected in the nonstructural protein-coding region, and five amino acid changes were noted in the structural protein-coding regions. In particular, a novel substitution in E2 was detected (K252Q), which may impact the neurovirulence of CHIKV. The adaptive mutation A226V in E1 was observed in two imported cases of chikungunya disease.
It’s good to know that the Wuhan Institute of Virology is not responsible for the current situation.
Nonetheless, U.S. health officials are cautioning travelers who are heading to Asia, South America, Africa, and the Indian Ocean.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this month issued a travel notice for the Guangdon province in China, encouraging travelers to practice enhanced precautions. The agency issued the same notices for other countries where outbreaks have been reported, including Bolivia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mayotte, Réunion, Somalia and Sri Lanka.
The CDC is also asking U.S. residents to exercise caution when visiting the following countries, which have not yet reported an outbreak but are at elevated risk of exposure: Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, India, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand and Nigeria.
As of 2025, there have been no locally acquired cases of Chikungunya in the United States. The most significant outbreak of locally acquired cases occurred in 2014, when I last reported on the subject.
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Comments
Battling or incubating?
Chikungunya
Are gamers creating these names? Or sadists?
chi China
kun can
gun shoot
ya
Yup.
Wuhan Virus Research Laboratory didn’t release a virus.
What do you see?
I see lies, and sick jokes.
Sounds like something Bugs Bunny would use.
China has always been a disease-riddled place. “Disease in China” is as newsworthy as “Rain in Seattle”
“Chinese authorities have decided to use some moves from their covid playbook in response.”
Yes. Weaponize it.
I heard they hired Fauci to breed special Chinese mosquitoes at Wuhan that can be carried on bats. He has to run a few more tests on dogs before it is ready for the wet market.
Chikungunya is an actual word that comes from a language in Tanzania meaning bent over. That is very unscientific. Why isn’t there a scientific name for it like LIVID-19?
Clearly this is racist against Tanzanians. We must find immediately find a word to describe this virus that comes from an entirely different language than where it originated. Precedent!
First time I’ve heard welding people in their houses called “citywide lockdowns”. It worked really well, too
faucci declares we must wear body armor but masks are not needed
What if we sent them all our mosquitoes to help out?
I thought chicken gunya is a Cajun dish served in New Orleans.
Snarc aside, there’s been more than a few news reports about Chinese agents smuggling into the USA poisonous fungii to feff up our food supply, poisonous ticks to feff up our people, and of course, the OG: covid19.
Wuhan or no Wuhan, I’ll declare that ‘natural genetic mutations’ will turn out to be gain of function research for yet another ChiCom biological weapon to unleash on the world.
just a rmeinder:
according to lefty themselves
MORE POEPLE DIED FROM COVID 19 UNDER FJB
THAN TRUMPIE
no matter the “reasons” excuses etc
at the end of djt term it was given that. 406k+ have died and in
2024 when fjb was leaving office ….1.21 had died ( with the possibility being higher)
thats 800k+ more under fjb
ANDDD just for the heck of it
more poc were shot by the police under fjb than when djt was #45
but the mpm decides when to give out info to incite or not incite the mob
This is an immensely silly statistic.
It’s as meaningless as pointing out that more people died from nuclear warfare under Truman than under Roosevelt.
Except by the time Brandon the pedophile took office we should have been seeing less people die since we knew how to treat it.