The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on Monday confirmed a case of hantavirus hemorrhagic fever, the third case of its kind in Taiwan this year.
The patient is a 57-year-old fish vendor living in Kaohsiung, the CDC said in a statement.
The statement said that the man sought medical treatment at a local clinic on April 1 after developing a fever. Two days later, he was admitted to a hospital, where he received further treatment for a persistent fever and other symptoms, including dizziness and muscle aches.
The hospital diagnosed him as having been infected with a hantavirus, the CDC said.
As of press time yesterday evening, no one else in the patient’s family had developed symptoms suggesting hantavirus infection.
City health authorities captured seven brown rats and one house shrew near the places where the patient lives and works, with two of the rats testing positive for a hantavirus, the CDC said.
“To reduce the risk of further transmission, the local health authority has implemented a number of rodent control measures within a 200m radius of the patient’s neighborhood,” the statement said.
According to CDC statistics, three cases of hantavirus infection have been confirmed in the nation this year. All three patients reside in Kaohsiung, with two of them from the same extended family.
Although the latest case emerged in a different village from the first two, their residences are only 400m apart, the CDC said.
Since 2001, 19 cases of hantavirus hemorrhagic fever have been confirmed in Taiwan, CDC statistics show.
Based on the results of a study in 2011 on the most common and widespread rodent-borne diseases in Taiwan’s five metropolitan areas, people who live or work near traditional markets and night markets are at increased risk of contracting hantavirus, the CDC said.
Hantavirus hemorrhagic fever is caused by hantaviruses, with rodents being the main carrier.
It is transmitted from infected rodents to humans by inhalation of aerosolized particles from rodent excreta or a bite from an infected rodent. Symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue, abdominal pain, lower back pain, nausea, vomiting, varying degrees of hemorrhagic manifestations and kidney problems.
The virus is not known to spread from person to person.
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