The dengue fever death rate for people older than 55 in Taiwan is about eight to 10 times the rate in Singapore, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, citing a lack of dengue virus antibodies as a possible main cause.
Although the outbreak of dengue fever in the nation appears to be slowing down, the virus has killed several victims this year, which caused the agency to ask its personnel to conduct a comparative study to search for possible reasons, CDC Director-General Steve Kuo (郭旭崧) said.
The median age of dengue fever fatalities nationally this year is 77 years old, while the median in Singapore in 2013 was only 52 years old, CDC physician Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said, citing statistics from the city-state.
About 40 percent of confirmed cases in Taiwan this year involved individuals over 55 years old, whereas only 14 percent were reported for the same age group in Singapore in 2013, Lo said, adding that “age is a major causal factor that differentiates the number of dengue fatalities in the two nations.”
A statistical comparison of dengue seroprevalence — the number of individuals in a population that have antibodies in their blood serum — between Singapore in 2010 and Tainan in 2007 showed that 90 percent of people older than 55 in the city-state tested positive for dengue antibodies, compared with only 36 percent in Tainan, Lo said.
Due to the prevalence of dengue fever in the city-state, many Singaporeans contracted the disease at least once in their youth and their bodies produced antibodies, Lo said, “while many older Taiwanese are contracting dengue fever for the first time, which, in addition to a weakened immune system or chronic diseases common in individuals of advanced age, might cause severe complications leading to death.”
The results have led the agency to approach a vaccine manufacturer to discuss the possibility of producing a dengue vaccine specifically designed for older individuals, which might be an effective preventive measure for areas where the disease is newly prevalent.
The dengue outbreak in Tainan appears to be slowing down steadily, with CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Liu Ting-ping (劉定萍) citing a reduction in the number of reported dengue cases in the past few weeks.
However, the number of cases reported in Kaohsiung is increasing, Liu added.
The Sanming (三民), Lingya (苓雅), Cianjhen (前鎮) and Gushan (鼓山) districts of Kaohsiung have seen the most significant rise in reported cases, Liu said.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
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
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