In preparation for back-to-school season, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday urged parents and teachers to educate children about the need to frequently wash their hands in order to avoid infection from the enterovirus.
The CDC said peak enterovirus season typically extends from April to September, but that as children go back to school, they are more at risk of spreading the disease to each other than during the summer vacation.
There have been 15 severe cases of enterovirus infection in the country so far this year, which is lower than previous years because enterovirus type 71 (EV71), the main cause of severe enterovirus, has been kept under control.
The CDC warned against complacency, saying that based on the data it has gathered so far, the number of cases could rise as children go back to school.
“About one to two weeks after children go back to school, there would be another peak [of enterovirus infections],” CDC deputy director Chou Jih-haw (周志浩) said.
Since enterovirus mainly affects young children, especially those under the age of five, and mainly travels by the fecal-oral route and the respiratory system, it is important for children to wash their hands frequently, especially before meals, he said.
In other news, the CDC said that those who have been diagnosed with dengue fever should take precautions against being infected with a secondary type of dengue virus to avoid the fatal dengue hemorrhagic fever.
CDC officials said they were worried that if the recent wave of dengue fever was not kept under control, more cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever could occur.
The CDC recently reported the country’s first death from dengue hemorrhagic fever. The woman died on Wednesday after being infected with one type of dengue fever earlier this month, followed by another type shortly afterwards.
Health officials advised households to keep surrounding areas dry to prevent the proliferation of mosquitoes that carry the dengue virus.
RSS