An out­break of the chikun­gun­ya virus in Chi­na has prompt­ed au­thor­i­ties to take pre­ven­tive mea­sures from mos­qui­to nets and clouds of dis­in­fec­tant, threat­en­ing fines for peo­ple who fail to dis­perse stand­ing wa­ter and even de­ploy­ing drones to hunt down in­sect breed­ing grounds.

More than 7,000 cas­es of the dis­ease have been re­port­ed as of Wednes­day, fo­cused large­ly on the man­u­fac­tur­ing hub of Fos­han near Hong Kong. Num­bers of new cas­es ap­pear to be drop­ping slow­ly, ac­cord­ing to au­thor­i­ties.

Chikun­gun­ya is spread by mos­qui­toes and caus­es fever and joint pain, sim­i­lar to dengue fever, with the young, old­er peo­ple and those with pre-ex­ist­ing med­ical con­di­tions most at risk.