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.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS