Forty-seven soldiers from the 10th Army Corps in Taichung County who were hospitalized following an outbreak of influenza were scheduled to be discharged from hospital yesterday after recovering, a spokesman for the corps said.
The soldiers, who were at a training camp in Houli Township (后里), were taken to Taichung Armed Forces General Hospital after developing coughs and fevers. All but two tested positive for influenza, corps spokesman Huang Kai-shen (黃開森) said.
Samples taken from six of the infected soldiers tested positive for A(H1N1), Huang said.
All recovered after treatment, Huang said.
The soldiers were among 180 recruits who arrived at Houli from a training center in Chiayi, he said.
The fact that only five of the 180 had received H1N1 vaccination may have facilitated a cluster infection, said Tsai Wen-che (蔡文哲), a Taichung County health official.
Tsai called on military officers to get vaccinated against H1N1 as soon as possible to avoid further cluster infections.
Taichung County’s Bureau of Public Health will dispatch medical experts to the army corps to provide health and hygiene education and conduct monitoring to prevent outbreaks, Tsai said.
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