The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday announced the nation’s first case of superbug NDM-1, but said quarantine would not be necessary, a decision that was strongly criticized by the former director of the agency.
Describing the Taiwanese man as a healthy, asymptomatic carrier, the CDC said the patient was recovering well and quarantine would not be required.
CDC Deputy Director-General Shih Wen-yi (施文儀) said the man was one of two Taiwanese wounded in New Delhi on Sept. 19, while working as part of a camera crew on a food documentary for a show on cable channel TVBS.
In the incident, two attackers on a motorbike opened fire outside New Delhi’s main mosque, shooting at a minibus hired by the crew.
CDC officials said the bacteria were found in the form of colonization in the patient’s intestinal tract, which meant that it was not a -category-four communicable disease. Although the man carries the bacteria, he shows no symptoms of the disease, nor does he need to be quarantined, officials said.
The victim’s anal swabs tested positive for the bacteria, but the superbug was not found in samples taken from his urine or gunshot wound, Shih said.
Shih said the infection was most likely a result of receiving surgery and medical treatment in the hospital in India, rather than an indigenous case. The NDM-1 superbug has not been found in the man’s travel companions.
The man, who was hospitalized at Taipei Veterans General Hospital on Monday last week, has now returned home.
CDC officials will follow up with check-ups on the man’s condition every week.
“The patient is recovering well [from the gunshot] and his daily activities are not affected,” Shih said. “Those living in his community need not worry about being infected by the bacteria.”
The CDC said it was still important to maintain good hygiene habits, and added that it had informed the WHO of this case.
The new strain of bacteria, named New Delhi metallo-beta--lactamase-1, is resistant to all known antibiotics and was listed as a category-four communicable disease by the Department of Health last month, meaning that hospitals and clinics must immediately report any suspected cases.
As NDM-1 is not an airborne disease, patients diagnosed with the bug do not need to be quarantined or kept in isolated hospital wards, though doctors must inform the health authorities about the cases, Shih said.
Doctors should notify the CDC or its local branches within 24 hours of seeing a patient who has received invasive surgery, has traveled abroad — to India and Pakistan in particular — over the past six months and whose samples show resistance to Carbapenem antibiotics.
Meanwhile, former CDC director Su Ih-jen (蘇益仁), who is now deputy superintendent at National Cheng Kung University Hospital, said the situation was serious and should have been dealt with differently.
The fact that the patient failed to exhibit any symptoms of infection such as diarrhea, indicating that the bacteria was non-toxic, was secondary to the potential for the drug-resistance of the introduced bacteria to be passed on to native bacteria in Taiwan, he said.
Su said that if the drug-resistant bacteria were present in sufficient quantities in the excreta of the patient, the resistant gene could be replicated in native bacteria such as intestinal bacteria. Native bacterial pathogens might then develop drug-resistance. If members of the public became infected by these, it would cause severe problems, as the resulting illnesses would be difficult to treat, he said.
Additional reporting by staff writer
The Taipei MRT is open all night tonight following New Year’s Eve festivities, and is offering free rides from nearby Green Line stations. Taipei’s 2025 New Year’s Eve celebrations kick off at Taipei City Hall Square tonight, with performances from the boy band Energy, the South Korean girl group Apink, and singers Gigi Leung (梁詠琪) and Faith Yang (楊乃文). Taipei 101’s annual New Year’s firework display follows at midnight, themed around Taiwan’s Premier12 baseball championship. Estimates say there will be about 200,000 people in attendance, which is more than usual as this year’s celebrations overlap with A-mei’s (張惠妹) concert at Taipei Dome. There are
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday vowed to investigate claims made in a YouTube video about China’s efforts to politically influence young Taiwanese and encourage them to apply for Chinese ID cards. The council’s comments follow Saturday’s release of a video by Taiwanese rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源) and YouTuber “Pa Chiung (八炯)” on China’s “united front” tactics. It is the second video on the subject the pair have released this month. In the video, Chen visits the Taiwan Youth Entrepreneurship Park in Quanzhou in China’s Fujian Province and the Strait Herald news platform in Xiamen, China. The Strait Herald — owned by newspaper
NEW YEAR’S ADDRESS: ‘No matter what threats and challenges Taiwan faces, democracy is the only path,’ William Lai said, urging progress ‘without looking back’ President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday urged parties across the political divide to democratically resolve conflicts that have plagued domestic politics within Taiwan’s constitutional system. In his first New Year’s Day address since becoming president on May 20 last year, Lai touched on several issues, including economic and security challenges, but a key emphasis was on the partisan wrangling that has characterized his first seven months in office. Taiwan has transformed from authoritarianism into today’s democracy and that democracy is the future, Lai said. “No matter what threats and challenges Taiwan faces, democracy is the only path for Taiwan,” he said. “The only choice
CORRUPTION: Twelve other people were convicted on charges related to giving illegal benefits, forgery and money laundering, with sentences ranging from one to five years The Yilan District Court yesterday found Yilan County Commissioner Lin Zi-miao (林姿妙) guilty of corruption, sentencing her to 12 years and six months in prison. The Yilan District Prosecutors’ Office in 2022 indicted 10 government officials and five private individuals, including Lin, her daughter and a landowner. Lin was accused of giving illegal favors estimated to be worth NT$2.4 million (US$73,213) in exchange for using a property to conduct activities linked to the 2020 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential and legislative election campaigns. Those favors included exempting some property and construction firms from land taxes and building code contraventions that would have required
RSS