The recent rise in imported malaria cases recalls a period in Hong Kong’s history when the disease threatened the city’s very existence. While it is unlikely that malaria will become prevalent here again, as global travel resumes, mosquito-borne diseases will again test the city’s resilience.
Liberal use of disinfectant may protect us from Covid-19 in the short term, but harm public health in the long run. In the current sanitising frenzy, the ominous threat of antimicrobial resistance has fallen off the world’s agenda.
Hong Kong can draw on both its history of epidemics and the talent and technological expertise in the Pearl River Delta region to tackle mosquito-borne diseases.