A four-year boy tested positive for Monkeypox (mpox) Wednesday and is believed to have been infected by a family member, Taiwan’s first case of the disease in a child, Center Disease Center (CDC) Deputy Director General Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞) said.
The boy began experiencing symptoms such as fever, eye discomfort and a rash, with vesicles on his limbs and trunk first presenting on the evening of June 1, Lo said Wednesday evening.
Because the symptoms did not improve, the boy was admitted to hospital on Monday and tested positive for mpox Wednesday, Lo said.
Photo: Reuters
The boy, who has mild symptoms, is still being treated at a local hospital, he added.
The CDC believes the case involves a household infection as the boy had contact with an individual previously confirmed as having contracted mpox in the family, Lo said.
Since the boy has been absent from the preschool where he is enrolled after coming down with the illness, the risk of transmission is low, but people he had close contact with at home and the preschool are required to closely monitor their condition for 21 days, Lo said.
Since the disease was designated a Category 2 communicable disease last June, Taiwan has reported 147 mpox cases, 135 transmitted locally and 12 abroad, according to the CDC.
Among the 147 cases, 10 remain in hospital, 54 are practicing self-health management at home, while 83 have recovered, the CDC said.
ACCESS DENIAL: Beijing would likely take formation in the Philippine Sea, outside Taipei’s missile range, while its forces on the east would be a deterrent to foreign aid China is increasingly likely to employ a strategy of anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) around Taiwan, which would use three carrier groups, a report from the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. When China’s third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, is completed next year, China would have three carriers, which would likely be used to surround Taiwan and implement an A2/AD strategy, it said, adding that efforts to strengthen China’s two other carriers — the Liaoning and the Shandong — appear to corroborate this. In the quarterly report, the council cited declassified documents from the Ministry of National Defense that categorized China’s carriers as
Two German warships are awaiting orders from Berlin to determine whether they would be the first German naval vessels in decades to pass through the Taiwan Strait next month, at the risk of stoking tensions with Beijing, a German commander said. While the US and other nations, including Canada, have sent warships through the narrow strait in recent weeks, it would be the German navy’s first passage through the Strait since 2002. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan, and says it has jurisdiction over the nearly 180km waterway that divides the two sides. Taiwan strongly objects to these claims, saying only its people
Former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley yesterday called for more international backing for Taiwan and a coordinated pushback against China’s claims over the nation. “The United States should elevate Taiwan on the world stage. You should no longer be silenced in global affairs,” Haley told an audience at the Ketagalan Forum, a Taipei conference focused on security issues in the Asia-Pacific region. She called for Taiwan to become a full member of the UN, even though it is being blocked by China from representation in international bodies. While the US does not formally recognize Taiwan, it is the nation's strongest
INCH BY INCH: Beijing has adopted a ‘salami slicing’ strategy to gradually erode the sovereignty of the Republic of China in the Taiwan Strait, an expert said A Chinese patrol and law enforcement operation in the Taiwan Strait could indirectly expand Beijing’s jurisdiction to the median line of the Strait in an attempt to eliminate jurisdictional gaps, Taiwanese experts said. The operation, jointly launched by the Chinese Ministry of Transport’s Fujian Maritime Safety Administration and its East China Sea Rescue Bureau, was conducted from Saturday to Sunday, after China’s three-and-a-half-month fishing moratorium concluded on Friday last week, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The operation — which Beijing said is designed to “enhance traffic management and emergency rescue capabilities in the Strait to ensure the safety of vessels, facilities