No other people who visited an indoor water park in New Taipei City have reported any symptoms of deadly brain-eating amoeba infection and the monitoring has been concluded, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday.
In a call with reporters, CDC spokeswoman Tseng Shu-huai (曾淑慧) said the monitoring period of the 642 people who visited the water park from July 21 to Aug. 9 had elapsed on Wednesday, which means no additional cases are expected.
The group was monitored after a woman, in her 30s, apparently contracted the Naegleria fowleri amoeba during a visit to the water park on July 21, the first such case in Taiwan since 2011.
Photo courtesy of the New Taipei City Department of Health
After visiting the park, the woman sought medical attention on July 26 for symptoms including headaches, a stiff neck, fever, chills and convulsions. Her condition deteriorated rapidly and she died on Aug. 1.
The CDC first reported the case on Aug. 10.
Around that time, CDC officials took 56 water samples from 10 locations in the park, of which only one sample, taken from the park’s basement, was found to have been contaminated with the organism.
The CDC has said the contaminated sample was likely rainwater that had entered the basement, which was off-limits to the public and was unrelated to the facility’s water supply.
Naegleria fowleri is a single-cell organism most often found in warm freshwater environments such as hot springs, rivers and lakes, as it reproduces best at high temperatures up to 46°C.
Humans can become infected when the organism enters the body through the nose.
People do not get infected by drinking contaminated water.
Adding chlorine to a pool at a concentration of 1 part per million can kill up to 99.99 percent of the amoebas, the CDC said.
‘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
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
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
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
RSS