A couple who live in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) have been diagnosed as the seventh and eighth confirmed indigenous cases of dengue fever in the nation since the start of summer, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Sunday.
The agency described them as cluster infection cases, saying the couple had not been abroad during the incubation period of the virus.
The couple lives about 24m from a 56-year-old woman who was confirmed on Thursday to have dengue fever, and all three are active in the same neighborhood and evening farmers’ market.
Another person living with the couple in Ruiguang Borough (瑞光) seems healthy, but the agency has started containment measures in the area, CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said.
CDC Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩) led health personnel to inspect the neighborhood within a 150m radius around the homes of the couple and the woman.
Chuang said the neighborhood is populous and needed to be observed for at least a week to see if there are any new infections.
The neighborhood monitoring will continue until Dec. 21, he said.
The last time Taipei had a cluster infection of dengue fever was in 2011 in Shilin District (士林), when there were 20 cases.
Eight indigenous dengue cases have been reported in Taiwan since May 1: two each in Tainan and Kaohsiung, one in Pingtung County and three in Taipei.
There have been 378 reported cases nationwide this year, 331 of which were imported, mostly from Indonesia and the Philippines. The sources of the remaining cases have yet to be determined.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
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
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
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft