A case of indigenous dengue fever and a case of imported Chikungunya fever were confirmed in Kaohsiung on Friday, the Centers for Disease Control said.
The dengue fever case involves a 77-year-old woman from Gushan District (鼓山), who started having signs of insomnia, diarrhea and fever on Tuesday.
She went to see a doctor on Thursday and was diagnosed with dengue fever on Friday.
The last confirmed case of dengue fever in Kaohsiung was reported on March 5, the centers said.
A case of Chikungunya fever was also reported in the same district on Friday.
A 37-year-old man, who traveled to Brazil on April 12 and returned home on Tuesday, was diagnosed with the disease after he began suffering from fever, as well as joint and muscle pain, on the following day.
The centers said as of Friday, four imported Chikungunya fever cases had been reported this year, with the latest case marking the 84th confirmed case since the disease was designated as a communicable disease in 2007.
All confirmed cases have been imported to Taiwan, mainly from Southeast Asian nations, the centers said.
Since the first indigenous case of Chikungunya fever in the Americas was reported in December 2013, the disease has spread rapidly across the region, especially in the Caribbean, with more than 1.9 million cases reported, the centers said.
The Kaohsiung Health Bureau said that it has disinfected the residences of the two patients, adding that as both dengue and Chikungunya fevers are spread by mosquitoes, the public should remove standing water from pots and containers to keep mosquito larvae at bay, especially in light of the rising temperatures and intermittent rain in southern Taiwan.
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
RSS