Taiwan has seen its first indigenous superbug case after a patient contracted an NDM-1 bacterial infection, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday.
The CDC told a press conference yesterday afternoon that a 56-year-old man who had received a kidney transplant in China and was later hospitalized in Taiwan has contracted the NDM-1 superbug.
The CDC said the man might have contracted the bug outside the country, but more information was needed to pinpoint the source of the infection.
According to the CDC, the individual had a kidney transplant in China’s Jiangxi Province in October. He returned to Taiwan later that month and was treated at a hospital for lower abdominal pain.
LAST RESORT
An MRI spotted a buildup of fluid in his abdominal cavity and tests on those fluids showed the presence of a Klebsiella bacterium resistant to carbapenems, one of the last-resort antibiotics for many bacterial infections.
The same strain of bacterium was later found in the man’s urine and, after further tests, the hospital suspected it contained the NDM-1 gene.
The CDC said it reported the case to the WHO on Monday.
The man has been quarantined and is still being treated.
The CDC listed NDM-1 as a communicable disease in October and requires local hospitals to immediately report any suspected cases of the superbug.
The nation’s first case of the NDM-1 superbug was reported in October last year when a cameraman for cable TV news station TVBS contracted the disease while being treated in an Indian hospital after being shot during a visit to New Delhi in late September.
The CDC at the time caused a furor over its decision to discharge the patient, saying that the cameraman showed no symptoms of the disease. Department of Health Minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) at the time pledged to step down if an outbreak of the NDM-1 superbug took place in the nation.
The cameraman has since recovered from the bacterial infection and is now back at work.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique