A total of 425 locally acquired dengue cases have been reported so far this year, the highest number for the period in a decade, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, while also warning that although weekly flu cases are dropping slightly, they are still more than in the past three years.
CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said the local infection risk of dengue fever is continuing to increase, and as many confirmed cases involve older people and dengue virus serotype 1 (DENV-1) and serotype 2 (DENV-2) have been detected, people who have been infected should be alert for signs of severe complications like hemorrhaging.
Lee said that 127 local cases of dengue fever were reported last week: 95 in Tainan, 23 in Yunlin County, seven in Kaohsiung and two in Taichung.
Photo: CNA
Of this year’s cases, 44 percent involve people aged 60 or older, she said.
The majority of cases reported last week were in Tainan, and while most were in districts where cluster infections had previously been reported, cases are spreading to more boroughs, and in some cases, the source of infection cannot be identified, Lee said, adding that 362 cases have been reported in Tainan so far this year.
A DENV-2 cluster was confirmed in Kaohsiung’s Fongshan District (鳳山) and a new cluster was reported in Alian District (阿蓮區), she said.
Although the two new cases in Taichung had recently visited Tainan and Yunlin, they are proof that the virus is spreading to more cities and counties, Lee said.
National Cheng Kung University Hospital vice-superintendent Ko Wen-chien (柯文謙) said the incubation period for dengue fever is about four to seven days, and about 25 percent of those who are infected with the virus develop early symptoms, such as bone, muscle or joint pain, as well as a headache or fever.
However, they are often difficult to tell apart from seasonal flu or other infections, until symptoms such as rashes, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite or diarrhea occur.
After experiencing early symptoms for about one to seven days, some people, especially older or immunocompromised people, might enter a critical stage in which they are at risk of developing dengue shock syndrome and hemorrhagic fever, he said.
The WHO’s dengue diagnosis guidelines include a set of warning signs for moderate-to-severe cases where hospitalization might be required. They are abdominal pain or tenderness, persistent vomiting, fluid accumulation, mucosal bleeding, lethargy, restlessness, an enlarged liver and an increase in red blood cells in conjunction with a drop in platelets, Ko said.
Meanwhile, Lee said there were 64,895 hospital visits for flu-like illnesses last week, showing that the number of weekly flu-like cases has been dropping for three consecutive weeks.
However, the number is still higher than for the same period over the past three years, she said.
Twenty-eight severe flu complications and nine flu-related deaths were also confirmed last week, meaning that the number of severe cases remains relatively high, Lee said, adding that 402 severe cases, including 85 deaths, have been confirmed this year.
CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said one of the new severe cases is a girl under the age of 10, who experienced sleepiness, a fever and a runny nose, then developed generalized convulsions and lost consciousness the next day.
She was found to have a brain edema and encephalitis after being rushed to a hospital, and is still being treated.
The CDC also reported that the average daily number of hospitalized COVID-19 cases dropped 19.5 percent to 153 cases per day last week.
The number of new cases declined for four weeks, it said.
Eleven new cases of mpox were confirmed last week, including the first imported case from China and 10 local cases, the CDC said.
More cases have been reported in China recently, so people at a higher risk of contracting it should be especially cautious when traveling there, while high-risk groups should get vaccinated, it added.
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