The Government has stepped up mosquito control measures to combat Dengue fever, Under Secretary for Food & Health Dr Chui Tak-yi said.

Dr Chui was speaking to the press today after inspecting the implementation of mosquito prevention and control measures by the Food & Environmental Hygiene Department in Kwai Tsing.

The department has stepped up anti-mosquito measures after four local Dengue fever cases were reported earlier this week.

Dr Chui said: “We have a system of stepping up the control measures addressing all the areas that the affected patients have gone through, for example the residential area, where they have travelled during a specific period, so we step up the particular mosquito control measures.

“And apart from that, we have a regular surveillance system reflecting the number of eggs we trapped in the ovitrap system.

“So that is an objective system for us to know where we should focus on our efforts and also reflect the effectiveness of the measures when we track the figures in a longitudinal manner.”

Department staff conducted fogging operations, applied larvicides, cleared stagnant water and cut grass to reduce the number of adult mosquitoes and eliminate potential mosquito breeding grounds.

The department also collected samples of the Aedes albopictus mosquito for virus testing to identify the infection sources of the Dengue fever cases.