The percentages of people suffering from bacillary dysentery who also test positive for HIV, and of people who are found to have hepatitis A along with HIV have increased this year, with the cause of the comorbid conditions most likely to be improperly protected anal sex, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said.
As of Nov. 12 this year, 73 bacillary dysentery infection cases had been reported, with 34 people (47 percent) also found to be infected with HIV — the highest percentage recorded in Taiwan for comorbid infections of the two diseases, CDC statistics showed.
Among 84 hepatitis A cases, 22 (26 percent) also had HIV, the CDC said.
The 56 patients with the comorbid infections are Taiwanese men with an average age of 30.7. Data showed that sexual intercourse was a risk factor among the majority of them, with 44 patients (78 percent) having engaged in same-sex intercourse prior to becoming ill and 10 having had sexual intercourse with members of the opposite sex, CDC physician Philip Yi-chun Lo (羅一鈞) said.
“Both bacillary dysentery and hepatitis A are infectious diseases that can be spread via the fecal-oral route, mostly through contaminated food and water, but direct or indirect oral-anal contact during sexual intercourse can also transmit the diseases,” Lo said.
Men with HIV are considered to be in a high-risk group for contracting bacillary dysentery, so they should avoid direct or indirect oral-anal contact during sex or take preventive measures to reduce infection risks, the centers said.
People should wash their hands with soap before having sexual intercourse, avoid oral-anal contact, and see a doctor as soon as possible if symptoms occur, Lo 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:
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
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