The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on Tuesday reported the first case of Lyme disease this year — an American man who traveled to Taiwan last month to visit his relatives.
The man, who is in his 30s, came to Taiwan with his family on Nov. 27 and stayed in a quarantine hotel after arrival, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) said.
However, as he developed joint pain, fatigue and muscle pain on Dec. 1, a local health department arranged for him to see a doctor and take a COVID-19 test on Dec. 6, Guo said.
Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times
The man reported to the doctor that he had been bitten by a tick in the US.
He tested negative for COVID-19, but positive for Lyme disease, Guo said, adding that his symptoms have since been relieved, while his family did not show any symptoms.
Lyme disease is a bacterial infection that can be transmitted to humans by infected ticks that had bitten infected animals, but it cannot be transmitted through human-to-human contact, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said.
The incubation period can range from three to 30 days, with an average of seven days, and about 70 to 80 percent of infected people develop erythema migrans — an expanding circular red rash around the bite, Lin said.
Other symptoms include a headache, fever, chills, nausea, vomiting and muscle pain, similar to a common cold, but if left untreated, the patient might develop heart or neurological problems, Lin said.
Ticks that transmit Lyme disease are mainly found in the temperate climate zone, such as in the US, especially in the northeast, Canada, Europe, Russia, South America, Japan, South Korea and China, he said.
There have been 17 imported cases of Lyme disease in Taiwan since the disease was designated as a category 4 notifiable communicable disease in 2007, he added.
People going outdoors in areas where the disease is spreading should wear light or bright-colored long sleeves and long pants, tuck in their shirts and pant legs, and apply insect repellent, he said.
They should use a tweezer to remove a tick if bitten and avoid twisting or jerking the insect to prevent parts of its mouth from breaking off and remaining in the skin, he added.
‘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
RSS