Hong Kong has recorded the first local infection of chikungunya fever this year, involving an 82-year-old woman who lives in Fung Tak Estate in Diamond Hill.

Health authorities said more than 10,000 residents from 8,000 households in 20 buildings in the public housing estate and nearby area are at higher risk of infections, and that they will approach them door-to-door to look for hidden cases.

Speaking in a press briefing on Sunday, controller of the Centre for Health Protection Edwin Tsui said the patient developed joint pain more than a week ago, and is now in stable condition at Kwong Wah Hospital.

Tsui said the elderly woman visited Qingyuan in Guangdong province in late August and had no travel history during the incubation period of two to 12 days.

He added that she mostly stays in the estate and is believed to be infected within the area.

Four household contacts are asymptomatic and under medical surveillance.

Tsui said the authorities will step up anti-mosquito measures in the Diamond Hill area.

“In the coming few days and about one to two weeks, all our colleagues in different departments will enhance our work on the vector surveillance, vector control, including the lockdown of the adult mosquitoes and also the reduction of breeding sites for the larva,” he said.

“For the human cases, we are implementing a series of measures like we are approaching all the residents in the 20 residential buildings in these districts. So by means of these measures, I believe we may pick up more human cases by this kind of active case finding, so we will further assess the risk in Hong Kong in the coming one to two weeks.”

Meanwhile, care team members will approach high-risk residents door-to-door to distribute questionnaires and leaflets about the mosquito-borne disease.

People who developed fever or joint pain since October 1 are urged to see a doctor, who will arrange testing for those in need, Tsui said.

Some residents living at Fung Tak Estate said they are worried about local transmission of chikungunya fever.

“There are many mosquitoes here, and it's easy for us to get bitten once we go outside. So we are worried,” a woman said.

Hong Kong has earlier logged 46 imported cases of chikungunya fever this year.