On Dec. 10, the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced that the number of enterovirus (EV) outpatient and emergency room visits was 21,000 last week, down 19.5 percent from 27,147 the previous week.
By the end of last month in Taipei alone, 2,766 classes in junior-high schools and below were temporarily suspended due to the outbreak, including 1,840 kindergarten classes. Since it might not be so easy for parents from dual-income families to take leave, and the cost of temporary childcare is high, it is often difficult to make arrangements to look after children if their classes are temporarily suspended due to EV.
According to the CDC’s recommendations for kindergartens, childcare centers, and other preschool education and care institutions, if there is no serious outbreak of EV-A71, then local governments’ standards for suspending classes should default to the recommendations of EV-D68. If the CDC detects an EV-A71 case — or any type of EV other than EV-D68 — that causes severe illness to a patient who is over three months old, then classes should be suspended whenever two or more children in the same class are diagnosed as having an EV infection within one week.
However, according to Article 37 of the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法), local governments are allowed to set their own standards for class suspensions by taking into consideration the social patterns, childcare resources and disease prevention needs of their local community. Class suspension standards are not the same in cities and counties nationwide. If needed, the public can contact their local health, education and social bureaus for more information.
Since there is no current outbreak of serious EV-A71 or EV-D68, can the local governments loosen the standards of class suspension in accordance with the act? When a class is temporarily suspended, the social cost of parents taking leave from work to take care of children is high. There are also more than 100 types of EV, which means that children can be infected repeatedly. The class suspension policy should be adjusted in line with the actual epidemic situation.
Lin Yung-zen is president of the Taiwan Primary Care Association and a supervisor of the Taiwan Pediatric Association.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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