Road to 5**﹕Dengue Fever
【明報專訊】◆Source A
Source: A cartoon by 尊子,
published in Ming Pao on 2018.08.21
◆Source B
The Islands District Council, the Cheung Chau Rural Committee, the Civil Aid Service together with the locals have launched an anti-mosquito campaign, delivering leaflets to residents and clearing stagnant water. The Islands District Council says that they are not worried about the ongoing dengue fever epidemic, adding that they will raise awareness of the disease and educate people to control mosquitoes.
Currently the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department monitors the breeding of Aedes albopictus for two weeks in 57 locations every month. The Ovitrap Index for Aedes albopictus in every location is published in three stages. The indices from the first and second stages are provisional, while the index from the third stage is the area index for the location that month. Professor Ivan Hun of the University of Hong Kong believes that data published for the first two stages each month can help control mosquitoes.
Source: Ming Pao, 2018.08.22
■Questions and answering guidelines
1. Identify and explain how people's quality of life will be affected if there is an outbreak of dengue fever in the community.
Strain on the healthcare system﹕
Many patients diagnosed with dengue fever have been to Lion Rock Park. If there is an outbreak at community level in regions such as Wong Tai Sin, a densely populated region that is in close proximity to Lion Rock Park, the number of cases will rise rapidly, which will put the already overwhelmed healthcare system under extra strain.
Impact on tourism industry﹕
Many business owners on Cheung Chau say that, since the media reported that two patients diagnosed with dengue fever had visited Cheung Chau before, visits to the island and bookings for accommodation have decreased, which to a certain extent has affected their business. If there is an outbreak in the community, that will definitely dampen enthusiasm for traveling to Hong Kong, which will affect the tourism industry of Hong Kong as a whole.
2. What difficulties might the government encounter when it tries to control mosquitoes?
Mosquito indices are not published fast enough﹕
In Guangzhou, data about mosquitoes is published in detail every week. Such data contains Dengue Fever Ovitrap indexes, adult mosquito density and the Breteau index in the vicinity of every residential area, hospital and school. Hong Kong, in contrast, publishes only data about adult mosquitoes, and the data is not known publicly until the middle of the month.
Lack of clarity about responsibility﹕
Mosquito control is handled by different departments including the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and the Housing Authority. For example, public football pitches are managed by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, while slopes are handled by the Environmental Protection Department. The different rates at which these departments conduct mosquito control work lead to differences in the approaches to mosquito control.
Geographical factors﹕
Mosquito control is not easy in some regions due to geographical reasons. Cheung Chau, for example, has a large area and is densely populated. A large number of people travel to and from the island on a daily basis, and the environments are quite different between the urban areas and the rural areas, as there are quite a lot of houses and woods. Residents' practice of growing plants also makes it easy for mosquitoes to breed.
Text: 徐溯, liberal arts teacher at Lok Sin Tong Leung Kau Kui College
Translation: Terence Yip
[通通識 第572期]
