The Department of Health's Center for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday that tests had confirmed that a man in Taitung has been diagnosed with malaria.
The CDC is concerned that, according to World Health Organization standards, it is the first case of the disease contracted locally.
"We know this is an introduced [domestically transmitted] case because the patient never traveled abroad," said Shih Wen-yi (施文儀), deputy director-general of the CDC. "We are still in the process of investigating and more information will be forthcoming. But we believe that this man was infected by people who had traveled abroad recently," said Shih Wen-yi (施文儀), deputy director-general of the CDC.
According to Shih, since the WHO declared Taiwan malaria-free in 1965, Taiwan has continued to see isolated cases of malaria each year.
Nineteen cases have been reported so far this year. Eighteen of these were a result of people being infected abroad, while the most recent case was contracted in Taiwan.
"One case of malaria is not a big deal, but if it begins to spread to more people, then we have a problem," Shih said.
The CDC stated that of the roughly 17 types of mosquitoes in Taiwan, only the Anopheles minimus spreads the disease.
These mosquitoes inhabit Pingtung, Tainan, Taitung, Hualien and Kaohsiung counties.
The mosquito can be identified by its five black and white stripes and a body angled upward.
The infected patient, a 57-year-old Aboriginal man from Taitung County, has been receiving treatment in the Mackay Memorial Hospital since he began showing symptoms on Tuesday.
Shih warned the public to stay away from mountainous areas and to avoid going out at night. He also said that those planning to travel to areas where malaria is common should visit the CDC before leaving.
According to Shih, some 3 million people die of malaria each year worldwide. He said, however, that given modern medical knowledge, identified cases of malaria are easily treatable.
Symptoms of the disease include fever, headache, excessive sweating, nausea and diarrhea. Because the incubation period ranges from 11 to 28 days, CDC officials are investigating the places the infected man visited over the past month.
The Taitung City Government has established a group to cooperate with the CDC in its investigations.
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
Conflict with Taiwan could leave China with “massive economic disruption, catastrophic military losses, significant social unrest, and devastating sanctions,” a US think tank said in a report released on Monday. The German Marshall Fund released a report titled If China Attacks Taiwan: The Consequences for China of “Minor Conflict” and “Major War” Scenarios. The report details the “massive” economic, military, social and international costs to China in the event of a minor conflict or major war with Taiwan, estimating that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could sustain losses of more than half of its active-duty ground forces, including 100,000 troops. Understanding Chinese
US President Donald Trump in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday said that “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the “status quo.” “He [Xi] considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing, but I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that,” Trump said. Trump made the comments in the context
SELF-DEFENSE: Tokyo has accelerated its spending goal and its defense minister said the nation needs to discuss whether it should develop nuclear-powered submarines China is ramping up objections to what it sees as Japan’s desire to acquire nuclear weapons, despite Tokyo’s longstanding renunciation of such arms, deepening another fissure in the two neighbors’ increasingly tense ties. In what appears to be a concerted effort, China’s foreign and defense ministries issued statements on Thursday condemning alleged remilitarism efforts by Tokyo. The remarks came as two of the country’s top think tanks jointly issued a 29-page report framing actions by “right-wing forces” in Japan as posing a “serious threat” to world peace. While that report did not define “right-wing forces,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
RSS