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.
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