The dengue fever outbreak that continues to ravage southern areas of the nation is unlikely to ease until January next year, as it has become more severe than previously thought, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday.
The number of cases could reach between 30,000 and 37,000 by January, depending on the effectiveness of disease control efforts in the southern municipalities of Tainan and Kaohsiung, CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said.
In comparison, the nation reported 15,732 dengue fever cases last year, by far the highest annual number since it began keeping such records. Prior to that, the highest number of cases recorded in a single year was about 2,000 in 2007 and in 2010.
Tainan has reported the highest number of cases this year, with 9,634 of the 11,006 cases reported nationwide as of Wednesday, CDC figures showed.
Kaohsiung had reported 1,195 cases as of Wednesday.
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Wednesday confirmed another seven deaths from hemorrhagic dengue fever, bringing the number since May 1 to 25 people.
The death toll is five times higher than in the same period last year and is likely to exceed the record 28 deaths for the whole of last year, the CECC said.
Despite the long-term forecast, the outbreak could turn around by the end of next month, Chuang said, expressing hope that the establishment on Monday of a central command center could upgrade its fight against the mosquito-borne disease.
The CDC previously predicted that the outbreak could ease by the end of this month.
In response, Chuang said there have been slight differences in the information coming from different disease-prevention authorities at different times.
The symptoms of dengue fever include severe headache, high fever, persistent vomiting, serious stomachache, difficulty breathing, bleeding, chills, skin rashes and sweaty limbs, the CECC said.
People who develop such symptoms should seek immediate medical attention, the center said, adding that doctors are also advised to report all suspected cases of dengue to the CECC.
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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