While a majority of residents of southern Taiwan are aware that dengue fever is widespread in certain areas there, most still lack knowledge about how to protect themselves against the disease, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday.
In a recent survey of 1,138 adults in Tainan and Kaohsiung, and Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties, the CDC found that although the public is well-educated about what causes the spread of dengue fever, they do not take enough measures to effectively prevent the disease.
The survey found that 95 percent correctly identified containers and ditches that are prone to gather water as a main cause of the proliferation of mosquitoes carrying the dengue virus and that 92 percent knew that dengue fever is spread by mosquitoes carrying the virus. However, only slightly more than half of those surveyed (52 percent) said they were worried about the disease spreading in their communities and only 48 percent were concerned that they would contract the disease.
The survey also found the public has less knowledge about dengue hemorrhagic fever, a fatal complication, than dengue fever. Only 65 percent were aware that having contracted one type of dengue fever does not make one immune to other types of dengue fever and only 63 percent knew that the mortality rate for someone who has dengue hemorrhagic fever is 50 percent if the person does not receive prompt medical treatment. The CDC said that as many as 30 percent of respondents mistakenly thought that vaccine shots for dengue fever were available.
CDC Deputy Director-General Shih Wen-yi (施文儀) said that one out of every three people were also unaware that if they do not follow regulations on keeping their environments free of conditions that allow mosquitoes to proliferate, they could be fined.
Meanwhile, the CDC yesterday announced the nation’s 10th and youngest reported case of dengue hemorrhagic fever this year. The victim is a four-year-old girl who lives in Lingya District (苓雅), in Kaohsiung, and who is in hospital.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching