RESIDENTS in Shenzhen are facing a middle-level risk of contracting dengue fever, according to the city’s center for disease control and prevention. The center has posted a level-III warning for dengue fever from Aug. 9 to Sept. 5. The Guangdong authorities have said that Shenzhen had seen 21 imported cases of dengue fever this year as of July 23, but no locally contracted cases had been reported. A girl in Shenzhen who had visited Thailand was recently confirmed to have contracted dengue fever while she was visiting the Southeast Asian country. In Hong Kong, two more people were diagnosed with dengue fever Saturday, bringing the total number of people in the territory to have contracted the mosquito-borne virus locally to 26 this year, the health authorities said. The latest updates mean that nine of the local cases either live on or had visited the island of Cheung Chau, while the remaining 17 had gone to the popular Lion Rock Park, or Wong Tai Sin, the district where the park is located, since the first case was reported Aug. 14, according to the South China Morning Post. The number of local cases in Hong Kong this year is at a record high, the Post said. Dengue fever is a disease caused by a family of viruses that are transmitted by mosquitoes. Symptoms of dengue fever include severe joint and muscle pain, swollen lymph nodes, headache, fever, exhaustion and rash. In a small proportion of cases, the disease develops into the life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever, resulting in bleeding, low levels of blood platelets and blood plasma leakage. (SD News) |