The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have raised the level of its epidemic alert for Japan based on that country’s apparent confirmation of an indigenous case of swine flu, a CDC official said yesterday.
Officials will add Japan to the list of countries they inquire about if passengers arrive in Taiwan exhibiting fever or other flu-like symptoms, CDC spokesman Shih Wen-yi (施文儀) said.
“We will pay more attention to passengers who travel to Taiwan from Japan from now on,” Shih said, adding that those who develop a fever after arriving in Taiwan should see a doctor and disclose their recent travel history.
Wire reports said health authorities in Kobe, Japan, disclosed yesterday that a senior high school student in the city was confirmed as testing positive for the A(H1N1) flu virus. Confirmation for two other students showing symptoms of the disease was pending. None of the students have been abroad recently, the reports stated.
“It is unclear where the patients contracted the virus, and therefore the possibility of community outbreaks has been raised,” Shih said, adding the CDC was expecting to receive a report from Japan later in the day detailing the A(H1N1) situation.
The neighboring country is now on “yellow” epidemic alert status, suggesting it may have moved from having only imported cases to an indigenous outbreak of swine flu, he said.
In light of this development, Taiwan has also raised its epidemic alert for Japan from the lowest in the three-phase “yellow” scale to the second highest, Shih said.
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