The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) for dengue fever yesterday said now is the peak period for the disease and that the public should avoid floodwaters and standing water as Typhoon Dujuan approaches.
A total of 17,112 dengue cases have been reported nationwide since May, with 14,811 in Tainan and 2,025 in Kaohsiung, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) figures showed yesterday.
The number of new cases reported on Saturday were 454 nationwide, with 366 in Tainan and 73 in Kaohsiung, while other cases reported in central and northern Taiwan were all people who had recently traveled to Tainan, the CDC said.
Photo: Hung Jui-chin, Taipei Times
A 55-year-old woman in Taipei who returned to her hometown of Tainan between Sept. 11 and Wednesday was diagnosed with dengue fever after she went to a doctor in Taipei on Thursday, the Taipei City Health Bureau said.
The public should be cautious and seek medical treatment if they suspect they have been infected, especially if they have traveled in southern Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chiang Been-huang (蔣丙煌) yesterday visited Tainan Hospital and Chimei Hospital, accompanied by Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德).
Chiang said the command center had asked Chimei Hospital and National Cheng Kung University Hospital to provide dengue fever emergency outpatient services over the three-day holiday weekend, as most hospitals and clinics would be closed.
Although more than 17,000 dengue cases have been reported so far, the majority of patients have already recovered, he said, adding that the use of dengue virus NS1 antigen rapid test kits this year has led to a substantial increase in reported cases, but has also help doctors diagnose the disease and begin treatment sooner.
The command center said that Typhoon Dujuan, which is expected to make landfall later today, might cause flooding in low-lying areas and the public should reinforce clean-up measures to prevent standing water — potential mosquito breeding sites — around their homes and offices.
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:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
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