Dengue fever plagues Taiwan

Outbreaks of dengue fever may take place any time throughout the year in Taiwan and could plague the island even without imported cases, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) warned yesterday.

At a public hearing entitled "dengue fever prevention policy and measures" held at the CDC, Chen Tsai-ching (陳再晉), CDC director-general, said the epidemic may not be wiped out in southern Taiwan this winter.

"Dengue fever cases may continue to appear in Kaohsiung and Pingtung although it is already winter now," Chen said.

Outbreaks of dengue fever in Taiwan over the past few years all belong to the DEN-2 virus stereotype, Chen said.

"But I am worried multiple dengue fever stereotypes will appear because we have imported cases every year," he said.

This year, the number of dengue fever cases in Taiwan has hit a record high of 5,227. "If we fail to control the epidemic this winter, next year's dengue fever outbreaks will get worse," Chen said.

According to the CDC, 4,747 cases were reported in Kaohsiung, while 351 cases were reported in Pingtung and 64 in Tainan.

Chen said this year's dengue outbreaks were similar to those in 1988.

"One cause of the 1988 outbreak is that the temperatures in January and February that year did not drop lower than 11°C," Chen added.

Yang Shih-yang (楊世仰), director of the CDC's Division of Laboratory Resources Management, said the CDC had confirmed Taiwan's dengue outbreaks over the past two years were both initiated by local cases.

"This year, in Kaohsiung alone, we have sprayed 20 tonnes of insecticide," Yang said.

But Yang noted that spraying insecticide was not an effective way to control the epidemic.

The most important approach to control dengue fever is to control the population of larvae by cleaning water containers, Yang said.

"The cooperation of wardens and village chiefs is helpful. If they can persuade residents in their communities to clean water containers on their own, it could be very effective in controlling the epidemic," Yang said.

Yang said the CDC is considering inviting Master Cheng Yen (證嚴法師), founder of the Buddhist Compassionate Relief Tzu Chi Foundation (慈濟功德會), to persuade the public to clean their water containers.

"We want to ask Master Cheng Yen to tell people if they can clean their water containers, then the CDC will not need to take so many [mosquito] lives every year. Killing mosquitoes is an act of taking lives," Yang said.