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The Star
2 days ago
- Health
- The Star
Fighting chikungunya in Hong Kong: why do experts reject mosquito ‘weaponising'?
Weaponising mosquitos against themselves to curb the spread of chikungunya fever in Hong Kong is not a sustainable solution due to the costs involved and questions about its effectiveness, experts have said, citing the experience of Singapore. Specialists said on Wednesday that Hong Kong should instead strengthen its existing measures used to combat the spread of diseases through the deployment of additional monitoring sites and big data collection. They were responding to comments made on Tuesday by Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan, who said authorities planned to test biological control strategies deployed in the mainland Chinese city of Foshan, which is the epicentre of the current outbreak. Chikungunya fever is a viral disease transmitted by the Aedes mosquito. While rarely fatal, it can lead to symptoms such as fever, rash, and joint pain. The mainland's Guangdong province has recorded more than 8,000 new cases of chikungunya fever over the past three weeks, mostly in Foshan. Hong Kong, meanwhile, reported two new imported cases on Thursday, bringing the total to eight since August 2. The latest cases involved a 50-year-old man and his eight-year-old daughter who had travelled to Bangladesh between July 20 and August 10. The father had tested positive for chikungunya after seeking medical help in Bangladesh for a fever. His daughter visited a hospital in Hong Kong with a fever, cough and fatigue. The Centre for Health Protection said she was in a stable condition. Among the measures lawmakers have urged the government to explore include Foshan's strategy of releasing non-blood-feeding elephant mosquitoes to control other populations of the insect in areas inaccessible to cleaners. According to a report by state media, a research team led by Guangzhou's Sun Yat-sen University had bred the elephant mosquitoes in a lab and released them 'proportionally' in waterlogged areas. The insects eat the larvae of the Asian tiger mosquito, a species that spreads chikungunya fever. Jin Dongyan, a professor of biomedical science at the University of Hong Kong, said that while current evidence suggested deploying elephant mosquitoes was safe ecologically, he questioned whether there was a 'strong need' for their use in the city. Mosquitoes carrying the virus were generally found outdoors during the day and only flew about 100 metres (328 feet), he said. Hong Kong's current surveillance strategy was already quite effective, he added, pointing to the lack of an outbreak of mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever in the last decade. The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department currently conducts mosquito surveillance across all 18 districts and implements measures such as applying larvicides and carrying out fogging operations to eradicate adult mosquitoes. Jin suggested authorities strengthen the existing strategy by deploying more monitoring equipment to identify areas with a higher concentration of disease-spreading mosquito species. 'We can stick with what works and probably strengthen these a little bit,' he said. 'That would be much more effective than releasing these elephant mosquitos everywhere.' A 2023 report on elephant mosquitoes from Tennessee State University in the United States noted that while there was potential to use the species for biological control, difficulties such as producing them in mass quantities had led to 'mixed' results. Some jurisdictions have found success in weaponising mosquitoes in other ways, such as through genetic modification. Since 2016, Singapore has used lab-grown mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia bacteria to reduce the population of certain disease-carrying species in specific areas by 80 to 90 per cent, according to the country's National Environment Agency. When male mosquitoes introduced with the bacteria mate with their female counterparts, the eggs do not hatch, so releasing them in high-risk dengue areas reduces the mosquito population over time. According to the agency's announcement last year, the insects released are expected to cover 50 per cent of all households in the city state by next year. Similar programmes have also been launched in other countries in the region, such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Australia. Ren Chao, a professor at the University of Hong Kong specialising in applied climatology, said such 'mosquito factories' were becoming more popular as a replacement for traditional chemical methods, which could cause ecological damage. But she said such programmes had their own challenges, such as high costs. A study estimated in 2020 that the annual cost of the Wolbachia programme was S$40 million (US$31.1 million) a year. She also said that infected mosquitoes needed to be released into the environment every two weeks because once the programme stopped, the disease-carrying species could quickly return to their habitat. The use of big data and advanced technologies to monitor mosquito populations could help to reduce costs. But she added that mosquitoes were also evolving and the changing climate meant Hong Kong was experiencing hotter and wetter summers, which were a suitable environment for the insect. 'I don't think there is a perfect solution,' she said. 'This kind of environmental hedging management is not only a local governance issue. I think individually everyone needs to be alert or increase their awareness.' - SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
The Star
02-08-2025
- Health
- The Star
Tiny terror meets its match
Major pest: Aedes mosquitoes are the primary vectors of chikungunya.— AFP Scientists battling the country's largest chikungunya epidemic are releasing swarms of giant cannibal mosquitoes whose larvae devour the smaller insects spreading the debilitating disease. These so-called 'elephant mosquitoes', measuring nearly 2cm in length, are voracious predators. Public health experts hope these unusual allies will become unlikely heroes in stopping the painful, fast-moving virus in the southern province of Guangdong. With more than 6,000 infections reported in just three weeks in Foshan alone, authorities are also reviving familiar tactics from the Covid-19 playbook, including mass polymerase chain reaction testing, isolation of infected residents and neighbourhood-wide disinfection campaigns. Yet it's the unconventional methods – giant mosquitoes – that underscore the desperation of officials confronting an unprecedented outbreak. The larvae of these so-called elephant mosquitoes, also known as Toxorhynchites splendens, is released by a research team from Sun Yat-sen University's Zhongshan School of Medicine in Guangdong. They don't bite humans but prey on Aedes mosquitoes – the primary vectors of chikungunya, dengue, Zika and yellow fever. Foshan, a sprawling city in central Guangdong, is deploying another tool: a local variety of fish that eats mosquito eggs and larvae. More than 5,000 of the fish have been released into city ponds and rivers. The city has designated 53 hospitals for chikungunya treatment, offering more than 3,600 beds equipped with mosquito nets and plans to expand capacity, according to state broadcaster CCTV. In nearby Guangzhou, officials published a risk map of all 120 communities and launched a week-long campaign involving mosquito spraying twice a day. One larva of the elephant mosquito can consume up to 100 Aedes, according to Zhang Dongjing, associate professor and technical director of a 'mosquito factory' linked to Sun Yat-sen University. — Bloomberg
Daily Mirror
11-07-2025
- Science
- Daily Mirror
Scientists drop cow carcass into ocean and are floored by creatures that appear
In an experiment conducted in the South China Sea, scientists plunged a cow carcass into the ocean to investigate what would happen and were left stunned by eight surprising visitors Scientists who dropped a cow carcass 1,600 metres into the ocean have been left stunned by a group of surprising visitors. It's estimated that only a quarter of the entire ocean seabed on Earth has been mapped. That often means there are weird and wonderful creatures lurking in the deep. And that's what a group of scientists found during an experiment in the South China Sea, which roughly spans from Singapore to the Strait of Taiwan. They plunged a cow carcass 1,629 meters into the depths near Hainan Island to investigate what would happen. To their astonishment, an elusive shark species, not previously recorded in this region, appeared on the scene. Eight Pacific sleeper sharks (otherwise known as Somniosus pacificus) were caught on camera enjoying the free meal. Another surprising aspect of the encounter was the sharks' behaviour, predation that appeared to involve a form of queuing. In the study that's been published in Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Research, it explained that the sharks up front would give up their spots to sharks coming to the carcass from behind. Han Tian, from the Sun Yat-sen University and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory in China, said in a statement: "This behaviour suggests that feeding priority is determined by individual competitive intensity, even in deep-water environments, reflecting a survival strategy suitable for non-solitary foraging among Pacific sleeper sharks." The sluggish Pacific sleeper shark is thought to live in the North Pacific, spanning from Japan to Mexico and dwelling at depths of up to 2,000m near continental slopes and shelves. In terms of prey, Sleeper sharks eat a range of surface and bottom animals, such as crabs, salmon, octopus, rockfish, and squid, although it's unknown if they take seals live or as carrion. According to data gleaned from tagging in the Northeast Pacific, some sleeper sharks often ascend and descend at speeds of more than 200 meters per hour. In the day, they moved below the photic zone (the upper portion of the ocean where light can penetrate) and came up to the surface at night. The scientists in the latest experiment also discovered that sharks over 8.9 feet were most aggressive in their attacks on the carcass when compared to the smaller animals, the latter of which displayed circling behaviour. Han added that this aggression could indicate that the region contains "abundant food sources", but questions remain over what they could be, describing the conundrum as "intriguing". In the study, it was noted that the sharks demonstrated eye retraction while they were feeding. It posited that this was likely a "protective adaptation", as they don't have a nictitating membrane found in other species. Also noted was that some of the animals, which are related to Greenland sharks, had parasites (akin to copepods, although they were unidentified). Speaking about the sharks' habitat, Han added: "Although Pacific sleeper sharks have also been found in the deep waters of their typical distribution range in the North Pacific, their frequent occurrence in the southwestern region of the South China Sea suggests that our understanding of this population remains significantly limited."
Time of India
30-06-2025
- Science
- Time of India
NIT research to improve weather prediction on Mars for better robotic, human mission planning
Researchers from NIT Rourkela and Sun Yat-sen University analysed over 20 years of Mars mission data to study how dust storms, dust devils, and water ice clouds shape the Martian climate. Their findings, published in New Astronomy Reviews, are expected to aid future human missions and deepen understanding of Mars' atmospheric dynamics. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Researchers from National Institute of Technology (NIT), Rourkela and Sun Yat-sen University in China have examined how spinning dust devils, powerful dust storms and widespread water ice clouds can influence the atmosphere on examining information from more than 20 years of data collected by multiple Mars missions, including India's Mars Orbiter Mission (MoM), the team has studied how dust and water ice interact to shape the planet's climate and findings of this research have been published in the prestigious journal, New Astronomy to Jagabandhu Panda, professor, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, NIT Rourkela, understanding these processes will also help in preparing for human exploration missions."Mars, also known as the red planet, is home to some of the most dramatic weather systems in the solar system. Dust raised by local and regional storms can travel far and disturb wind patterns resulting in change of temperatures, and in some cases, reshape the Martian atmosphere in dramatic ways," he said."Knowing how Martian weather works can help protect spacecraft, support future astronauts, and improve our understanding of whether Mars may once have supported life," he explained that advancing the weather prediction on Mars is not just a scientific pursuit, it is the cornerstone of ensuring that future missions can sustain there and realise the past and future habitability of the red imaging data of more than 20 years, the researchers have traced how changing season on Mars evolve the dust and clouds formation and movement."These findings refine the human knowledge and understanding of Mars' climate system and may be useful for predicting future weather on the planet. As more missions head to the Red Planet, long-term studies like this one offer essential clues about its ever-changing skies," he said.
South China Morning Post
10-04-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Microsoft abruptly cuts services to Chinese university, genomics firm
US technology giant Microsoft has abruptly suspended some services for a number of clients in mainland China, fuelling speculation about accelerating technological decoupling between the world's two largest economies. Advertisement Guangzhou-based Sun Yat-sen University sent a notice to faculty and students on Tuesday night stating that Microsoft 365 services – including OneDrive, OneNote, and SharePoint – will cease operations on Thursday afternoon. 'Please log in to Microsoft 365 as soon as possible to retrieve personal data and files,' the university's network and information centre said in its email, which was seen by the South China Morning Post. A staff member on the university's IT help desk said it was Microsoft's choice to terminate the school's business account. The move comes just days after BGI Group, a leading Chinese genomics company, suddenly lost access to its own Microsoft services, including the Outlook email system and OneDrive cloud storage platform. Two employees of the company noted that the company was caught off guard by the sudden service suspension, which forced it to scramble for alternatives, including the emergency use of the WPS Office suite, from Beijing-based Kingsoft. The termination of service was first reported by Nikkei Asia. Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. It has not made any public statements explaining the reason for the suspensions. Advertisement BGI Group has been a target of US authorities. Several of its subsidiaries have been added to the US Commerce Department's trade blacklist in recent years.
