A further seven cases of measles have been identified after an imported measles cluster spread last week, bringing the total cases to 12, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) said today.
It marks the highest number of cases within a single cluster in five years, with 1,014 people confirmed to have come into contact with the disease who are to be monitored until Jan. 8, the CDC said.
The CDC on Wednesday last week said that they had identified the first case of a measles cluster this year, after a man in his 40s was diagnosed with the disease in central Taiwan on Dec. 10.
Photo: Lin Huei-chin, Taipei Times
The man broke out in a fever with a runny nose, sore throat and other symptoms after returning from Vietnam, the CDC said.
He infected a fellow passenger on his flight, and the following day when he went to hospital for a consultation the outbreak spread to three other patients, it said.
The CDC reported a further seven cases today from a hospital in central Taiwan who were infected between Dec. 14 and 19, and who developed symptoms between Tuesday last week and Saturday.
The infected parties are three nurses in their 20s, a cleaner in her 30s, a doctor in her 40s, a relative of a patient in their 50s who came into contact with the disease at a hospital and a maintenance worker in his 20s, it said.
The hospital convened a meeting on Thursday last week to prepare responsive measures and laid out plans to vaccinate 1,149 hospital staff who required the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination, including contracted workers and those in catering and retail, it said.
The CDC and the district health center would continue to supervise the hospital in implementing disease control measures and monitor the condition of exposed persons, it added.
According to CDC statistics, as of Monday, 26 cases of measles had been identified this year in patients aged from their 20s to 50s.
Seventeen were infected domestically, four of whom are from this latest cluster, and nine were infected internationally: three on a plane, one in Vietnam, two in Malaysia, one in Thailand and one in Cambodia, CDC data showed.
This year, infections have been higher than from 2020 to last year, which only saw up to two cases each year, it added.
Measles is a highly contagious disease that is infectious for four days before and after the onset of a rash, the CDC said.
The public should avoid unnecessary visits to healthcare facilities and hospitals, while infected patients and their families should avoid visiting crowded public areas, maintain good respiratory hygiene and cough into tissues to reduce risk of transmission, the CDC said.
If the public presents measles symptoms, they should seek medical attention immediately and notify healthcare professionals of any relevant travel history, it added.
Civil society groups yesterday protested outside the Legislative Yuan, decrying Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) efforts to pass three major bills that they said would seriously harm Taiwan’s democracy, and called to oust KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁). It was the second night of the three-day “Bluebird wintertime action” protests in Taipei, with organizers announcing that 8,000 people attended. Organized by Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union (EDU) and a coalition of civil groups, about 6,000 people began a demonstration in front of KMT party headquarters in Taipei on Wednesday, organizers said. For the third day, the organizers asked people to assemble
POOR IMPLEMENTATION: Teachers welcomed the suspension, saying that the scheme disrupted school schedules, quality of learning and the milk market A policy to offer free milk to all school-age children nationwide is to be suspended next year due to multiple problems arising from implementation of the policy, the Executive Yuan announced yesterday. The policy was designed to increase the calcium intake of school-age children in Taiwan by drinking milk, as more than 80 percent drink less than 240ml per day. The recommended amount is 480ml. It was also implemented to help Taiwanese dairy farmers counter competition from fresh milk produced in New Zealand, which is to be imported to Taiwan tariff-free next year when the Agreement Between New Zealand and
A woman who allegedly spiked the food and drinks of an Australian man with rat poison, leaving him in intensive care, has been charged with attempted murder, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. The woman, identified by her surname Yang (楊), is accused of repeatedly poisoning Alex Shorey over the course of several months last year to prevent the Australian man from leaving Taiwan, prosecutors said in a statement. Shorey was evacuated back to Australia on May 3 last year after being admitted to intensive care in Taiwan. According to prosecutors, Yang put bromadiolone, a rodenticide that prevents blood from
China is likely to focus on its economy over the next four years and not set a timetable for attempting to annex Taiwan, a researcher at Beijing’s Tsinghua University wrote in an article published in Foreign Affairs magazine on Friday. In the article titled “Why China isn’t scared of Trump: US-Chinese tensions may rise, but his isolationism will help Beijing,” Chinese international studies researcher Yan Xuetong (閻學通) wrote that the US and China are unlikely to go to war over Taiwan in the next four years under US president-elect Donald Trump. While economic and military tensions between the US and China would
RSS