People are spreading dengue fever

The government's handling of the dengue fever outbreak, at least as reported by the South China Morning Post, shows a shocking lack of knowledge about the spread of mosquito-borne disease.

I am not an epidemiologist, but I am quite sure that while mosquitoes carry dengue it is people who spread it. Thus a person infected on Ma Wan spreads the disease when he travels elsewhere (such as Queen Mary Hospital) and is bitten by another mosquito, which he infects and which then bites someone else, and so on.

You can kill every mosquito on Ma Wan and still have dengue fever spread, aided by we very mobile humans.

ALICIA KERSHAW

The Peak