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Kaohsiung battles dengue fever

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.
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