Two cases of locally acquired dengue fever have been reported in Taipei, marking the first emergence of the tropical disease in the city this year, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday.
The centers urged the public to avoid coming in contact with or producing pools of stagnant water to avoid a cluster infection.
Five locally acquired dengue fever cases were confirmed between Aug. 20 and Monday, three of which occurred in Pingtung County and two in Taipei, the health agency said, adding that 10 imported cases have also been reported over the same period.
The two cases of infection in Taipei afflicted a man and a woman, both aged 25. The pair first experienced the onset of the disease’s symptoms on Aug. 14.
None of the people who had close contact with the two individuals have developed any suspicious symptoms, the CDC said.
“The two Taipei dengue patients do not live or work in the same place, but our investigation revealed that a person close to one of the patients lives in the same building as the other. We have employed anti-mosquito measures in the area,” CDC physician Philip Yi-chun Lo (羅一鈞) said.
Lo added that both patients had been infected with dengue virus type 1, which was found in an imported case reported in Taipei late last month.
The CDC is investigating the possibility that the three were a cluster infection.
Two cluster infections were reported in Taipei in recent few years: one in 2008 and the other in 2011, with about 20 cases of dengue virus infection confirmed in each cluster, the CDC said, adding that with a typhoon approaching, it is even more critical to manage the environment carefully to prevent dengue-carrying mosquitoes from breeding.
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