As of Monday, 69 locally acquired cases and 99 imported cases of dengue fever had been reported this year, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said, advising the public to take proper measures to reduce the risk of a potential outbreak.
Five locally acquired cases of dengue fever were reported in Pingtung County last week, taking the total number of locally acquired cases to 53 this year in Pingtung alone, CDC official Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said, adding that in the same week 10 imported cases from Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines were reported.
The agency also announced that five more cases of Japanese encephalitis (JE) have been confirmed, with all the infected patients experiencing the onset of the disease between June 10 and June 30.
“Four were hospitalized, one of whom is currently in intensive care, and one has since been discharged,” Chuang said.
As of yesterday, a total of nine confirmed cases of JE had been reported this year, according to the agency.
“However, compared with the number cases recorded in the same period last year, which was 26, this year’s nine is not that many,” Chuang said.
CDC physician Philip Yi-chun Lo (羅一鈞) said that pigs are the main host of the JE virus in Taiwan, so people who live near hog farms should take heed of the sanitary condition of their surroundings.
The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union yesterday vowed to protest at the EVA Air Marathon on Sunday next week should EVA Airway Corp’s management continue to ignore the union’s petition to change rules on employees’ leave of absence system, after a flight attendant reportedly died after working on a long-haul flight while ill. The case has generated public discussion over whether taking personal or sick leave should affect a worker’s performance review. Several union members yesterday protested at the Legislative Yuan, holding white flowers and placards, while shouting: “Life is priceless; requesting leave is not a crime.” “The union is scheduled to meet with
‘UNITED FRONT’ RHETORIC: China’s TAO also plans to hold weekly, instead of biweekly, news conferences because it wants to control the cross-strait discourse, an expert said China’s plan to expand its single-entry visa-on-arrival service to Taiwanese would be of limited interest to Taiwanese and is a feeble attempt by Chinese administrators to demonstrate that they are doing something, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said the program aims to facilitate travel to China for Taiwanese compatriots, regardless of whether they are arriving via direct flights or are entering mainland China through Hong Kong, Macau or other countries, and they would be able to apply for a single-entry visa-on-arrival at all eligible entry points in China. The policy aims
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
COUNTERMEASURE: Taiwan was to implement controls for 47 tech products bound for South Africa after the latter downgraded and renamed Taipei’s ‘de facto’ offices The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed by the South African government last month to regulate the status of reciprocal representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Asked about the latest developments in a year-long controversy over Taiwan’s de facto representative office in South Africa, Lin during a legislative session said that the ministry was consulting with legal experts on the proposed new agreement. While the new proposal offers Taiwan greater flexibility, the ministry does not find it acceptable, Lin said without elaborating. The ministry is still open to resuming retaliatory measures against South
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