The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday warned the public against consuming raw or undercooked shellfish after it was found to have been responsible for most of the hepatitis A infection cases reported in October and last month.
“A total of 30 people were reported to have contracted hepatitis A between Oct. 1 and last Sunday — sharply higher than four cases reported in the same period last year. Of the patients, 25 developed symptoms that were severe enough to require hospitalization,” CDC Director Kuo Hsu-sung (郭旭崧) told a press conference.
Kuo said that hepatitis A, a viral foodborne illness, has a relatively long incubation period of between 15 and 50 days, which is why it had been almost impossible for disease control specialists to trace the infection to the exact type of contaminated food in the past.
“Fortunately, through a combined use of DNA sequencing and food-history questionnaires, we were able to determine that the majority of the patients were infected by the virus via consumption of raw shellfish, such oysters and clams,” Kuo said.
CDC disease prevention physician Chen Wan-ching (陳婉青) said the 30 infected patients include 13 males and 17 females, ranging in age from 13 to 73, with the hepatitis A virus strains of 19, or 63 percent, of them showing high DNA sequence similarities.
The CDC was able to ascertain the source of the patients’ infections after analyzing the questionnaire results, which found that all of them had eaten shellfish before they were diagnosed with hepatitis A, with 79, 63 and 79 percent having consumed raw seafood, oysters and clams respectively, Chen said.
Academia Sinica researcher Chen Pei-jer (陳培哲), a viral hepatitis expert, said that due to the poor sanitary conditions in Taiwan decades ago, nearly 95 percent of people aged 60 and above are immune to hepatitis A because infection generates lifelong immunity.
“However, with significant improvements in overall quality of life, most people under the age of 40 have never contracted the virus and are therefore not immune,” Chen Pei-jer said.
That the majority of foods are mass produced only further increases the country’s risk of an epidemic outbreak, he said.
Chen said that while infection with hepatitis A is often asymptomatic in young patients, it could cause potentially fatal symptoms in older victims and people who are affected by chronic diseases or are hepatitis B or C carriers.
“Those in the high-risk group are strongly advised to get vaccinated against hepatitis A and avoid undercooked shellfish,” Chen said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty