The Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday it would begin using a fast-reacting blood serum test next month that will allow it to determine if inbound passengers have dengue fever more quickly than in the past.
Huang Chih-hsiung (黃智雄), a researcher at the DOH’s Centers for Disease Control, said the blood serum reagent kits would reveal if inbound aircraft or ship passengers with high temperatures had been infected with dengue fever between five and 30 minutes after collecting drops of their blood.
Health officials will advise passengers who test positive to go to contracted hospitals for further examination, Huang said.
Three-fourths of the more than 170 travelers who entered Taiwan with dengue fever last year were found to have had high temperatures at ports or airports and had their blood tested, but Huang said it took too long for the results to come back.
“Those people would only be notified of their infection two or three days after entering Taiwan,” Huang said. “They could have infected others during the period.”
Wu Ho-sheng (吳和生), director of the Centers for Disease Control’s Research and Diagnostic Center, said that because it is difficult to take blood samples from the elderly and children, the centers would also use saliva screening to test for the virus.
The drawback is that saliva testing is even less accurate than the blood serum tests, which are said to be 60 percent accurate. Of six dengue fever patients who tested positive through serum tests, only three were found positive in saliva screening, Wu said.
This is why the CDC is planning to expand saliva collection from the elderly, children or volunteers, in the second half of the year, hoping to collect 20 positive cases for further assessment.
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