The Kaohsiung City Government has stepped up efforts to contain the spread of dengue fever after 28 new cases were reported in parts of the city last week, a local health official said on Monday.
“Twenty-eight indigenous dengue fever cases were reported in the city last week alone, bringing the total to 186 so far this year,” said Ho Chi-kung (何啟�?director of the city’s Department of Health.
With an annual national sports event being held in the city and a warm-up activity for the 2009 World Games opening yesterday, Ho said the city government’s dengue fever team had increased its monitoring and stepped up preventive operations, including epidemiological surveys, environmental cleanups and emergency disinfections.
Ho said the dengue fever situation this year was far more complicated than before.
In the past, outbreaks in the city were usually caused by a single strain of the virus, whereas this year, he said, two variants of the virus originating from four countries — Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and Cambodia — were detected.
Making epidemic control even more challenging is the fact that the four strains penetrated different districts of the city, Ho said.
Dengue fever cases in Nanzih District (楠梓) were mainly caused by a Type 1 virus originating in Thailand, Ho said, with 14 boroughs affected.
Aside from Jenchang Borough (仁昌), which was still being closely monitored, the epidemic had been brought under control in all other boroughs, with no new cases reported for more than six weeks.
A case reported in Huafeng Borough (華豐), Kushan District (鼓山), was caused by a Type II strain originating in the Philippines, Ho said, adding that no new case of this strain had been reported for more than four weeks.
Meanwhile, the Type II Cambodian strain has mainly affected Chienchen District (前鎮) and Kaohsiung County’s Fengshan City (鳳山). The cases in Lingya District (苓雅), meanwhile, were mainly caused by the Type I Vietnamese strain, Ho said.
Ho said the Cambodian and Vietnamese strains had likely spread to neighboring areas in Kaohsiung City and Kaohsiung County in August, adding that although the outbreak was contained, the virus had spread to Chienchen and Lingya districts, causing the infection to peak last week.
With intensive preventive efforts, Ho said the epidemic would gradually subside in the coming week or two.
The potentially deadly dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease, which is manifested by a sudden onset of severe headaches, muscle and joint pains, fever and rashes.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
RSS