Three people have been confirmed to have died as a result of dengue hemorrhagic fever in Taiwan so far this year, the Department of Health (DOH) reported yesterday.
The three victims, residents of Kaohsiung City and Kaohsiung County, were confirmed to have died as a result of domestically-acquired dengue hemorrhagic fever, according to officials from the DOH Center for Disease Control (CDC).
The death toll marks the highest annual number of people killed by locally-acquired dengue hemorrhagic fever in Taiwan in more than 10 years, the CDC officials said.
According to CDC tallies, only one person died of dengue hemorrhagic fever in each of 1995, 1998 and 2001. And even in 1988 when more than 4,000 dengue fever cases were reported around Taiwan, nobody died as a result of the fever.
As of yesterday, 1,685 cases of dengue fever have been reported nationwide since the outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease in Kaohsiung and its neighboring regions in late June.
Of the 1,685 reported cases, 26 have been cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever, including the two women and one man who have already died. Although a few cases have been reported in other parts of Taiwan, most of the cases have been reported in Kaohsiung, with 752 cases in Kaohsiung City and 878 cases in Kaohsiung County.
CDC officials have expressed concern that the dengue fever situation may worsen after Typhoon Sinlaku hits Taiwan with expected torrential rainfalls, creating ideal conditions for mosquito-infestation of even larger areas.
Four types of virus that cause dengue fever have been found, and patients with more than one type of virus can develop symptoms that include bleeding of the gums, the skin and the intestinal tract, in addition to the classic symptoms of sudden high fever, severe headaches, nausea and vomiting, and muscle and joint pain. Dengue fever, seems to have affected Taiwan in a cyclical pattern -- with a small-scale outbreak about every three years and a major outbreak about every 10 years.
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