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
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS