As the number of flu patients continues to rise in central and southern Taiwan, health officials have warned that there will be another peak of the flu epidemic around Chinese New Year.
The Department of Health (DOH) on Saturday formed a nationwide Influenza Consultant Team.
The team will build up a reporting and sampling network for flu treatment and assessment.
According to Hsu Kuo-hsiung (許國雄), vice director of the Bureau of Communicable Disease Control (疾病管制局), the Chinese New Year holidays will see the busiest flow of people to and from northern and southern Taiwan.
People will have more personal contact and, as a result, the flu epidemic in the south may be transmitted to the north.
Hwang Kao-pin (
According to his experience, the epidemic reaches a peak after three to four weeks and the epidemic period usually lasts two months.
"This means there would be another burst of flu cases before and after the Chinese New Year, and this would last until the end of February," said Hwang.
Influenza A and influenza B are the main virus types that have hit Taiwan, Hwang said. The main symptoms of influenza A are high fever, headaches, shivers and sore muscles. Influenza B has similar but milder symptoms.
According to Hwang, adults and young adults tend to be infected with influenza A, while children under 12 tend to catch influenza B.
"But among my patients, many children infected with influenza B suffer from serious leg muscle inflammation and they had difficulty walking," he said.
Hsu Kuo-hsiung from the DOH said that since December, there have been hundreds of thousands of flu cases. Taichung, Changhua, Yunlin and Kaohsiung are the regions that appear to have been hit hardest by the flu bug.
Pediatrician Hwang said flu cases at Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital have increased by 30 to 50 percent over this time last year.
But luckily, the DOH said, the virulent flu virus now raging through Europe and North America has not hit Taiwan.
The flu virus in Europe is influenza A-Sydney (H3N2), whereas the one hitting Taiwan, especially after December, is influenza A-Beijing (H1N1), according to the bureau's categorization.
Hsu said influenza A-Sydney caused a major epidemic in Taiwan in 1997, so many Taiwanese had generated antibodies to that type of virus.
The DOH has called upon people to visit their doctors for influenza vaccinations
According to the department, 65,000 to 70,000 doses of the vaccine are now available. The vaccine costs around NT$800.
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