As of yesterday noon, 41 residents of Xishan Borough (溪山) in Taipei’s Shilin District (士林) had developed symptoms of stomach flu, which might have been caused by consuming mountain spring water, with 30 of them having sought medical treatment, the Taipei Department of Health said.
The other 11 are recuperating at home and nobody is in a serious condition, the department said.
On Thursday, Xishan Borough Warden Huang Hui-fen (黃慧芬) said that since Wednesday last week, when an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale rocked Taiwan, about 100 borough residents had reported symptoms of acute gastroenteritis — or stomach flu — including vomiting and diarrhea.
Photo: CNA
The sick all live in the same water source area, she said, adding that many households in the area have their own water supply system instead of the tap water provided by the Taipei Water Department and many saw three to four family members display similar symptoms.
The incident might have been caused by the powerful quake, as the seismic activities could have tainted the water source, Huang said.
As of press time, there had been no official statement confirming Huang’s hypothesis.
Also yesterday, the Taipei Water Department said in a statement that an inspection conducted on Monday indicated a higher-than-usual amount of Escherichia coli, or E coli, was present in the untreated spring water they used.
Such water must always be boiled before drinking due to the possibility of contamination, it said.
E coli is a common kind of bacterium found in the intestines of humans and other warm-blooded animals, but its presence in food and water is a strong indicator of contamination, Centers for Disease Control spokesperson Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑惠) said.
Food poisoning induced by the bacteria usually takes place five to 48 hours after consuming contaminated substances, and the seriousness of the symptoms varies largely from person to person, with cases involving younger people tending to be more severe, Tseng said.
By Thursday evening, the water department had set up five temporary stands to provide residents with clean water.
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
RSS