A seven-year-old boy who developed flu symptoms after a recent visit to Japan has been quarantined at National Taiwan University Hospital for observation, a Taipei City health official said yesterday.
The boy was first taken to the Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital’s Taipei Branch on Sunday after developing a high fever, runny nose and cough, said Chiu Wen-hsiang (邱文祥), director of the city’s Department of Health.
Later that day he was referred to National Taiwan University Hospital for quarantine amid concerns that he could have contracted swine flu, or the A(H1N1) virus, during a visit to Japan last week.
Meanwhile, a young Japanese woman from Osaka was quarantined at Taoyuan General Hospital yesterday after she was found to have a high fever upon arrival at Taoyuan International Airport.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) personnel examined the woman, who had a fever of more than 38°C, and then took her to the hospital for quarantine and observation.
Officials said the Central Epidemic Command Center had been alerted about both cases and preventive measures would be taken immediately if the tests confirmed the boy or the woman had the A(H1N1) flu strain.
To date, there have been no cases of swine flu in Taiwan.
Meanwhile, 19 Taiwan-bound passengers who arrived in Hong Kong on Saturday aboard a Cathay Pacific-American Airlines codeshare flight (CX 831/AA 6091) have been urged to contact heath officials after Hong Kong authorities confirmed on Sunday that another passenger on the flight had swine flu.
Hong Kong officials said a 23-year-old Chinese university student from Guangdong on the flight, which left New York on Friday, was intercepted at the airport after thermal testing showed he had a fever. He was taken from the airport to a hospital and initial tests were positive for the H1N1 flu strain.
Thomas Tsang (曾浩輝), controller at Hong Kong’s Center for Health Protection, told reporters on Sunday that the student sat in the 60th row of the plane and travelers sitting in the 57th to 63rd rows on the same flight should contact health officials.
“The 19 [Taiwan-bound] passengers should call health authorities at 1922 as soon as possible because there is a possibility that they could have been exposed to the A(H1N1) influenza virus,” said Shih Wen-yi (施文儀), spokesman for the Central Epidemic Command Center.
Twenty-four passengers and seven crew members from the flight have been quarantined in Hong Kong, Hong Kong Undersecretary for Food and Health Gabriel Leung (梁卓偉) told reporters yesterday.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its