Two migrant workers from Southeast Asia have been confirmed to have chikungunya fever, a mosquito-borne viral disease, the Kaohsiung Department of Health said yesterday.
One of the patients is a 28-year-old woman from the Philippines living in Kaohsiung’s Nanzih District (楠梓) who had visited her hometown in the Philippines late last month, the department said.
She developed a fever, and started having joint and muscle pain on Tuesday last week, and was on Saturday diagnosed with chikungunya fever, it said.
The second patient is a 22-year-old Indonesian man living in Kaohsiung, who developed a fever on Thursday after returning from a trip to his home nation, the department said, adding that a blood test on Saturday confirmed that he also had contracted the chikungunya virus.
Possible mosquito breeding sites near the two workers’ homes have been disinfected, the department said.
The chikungunya virus is transmitted by two types of mosquitoes, Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti, which also transmit the dengue and Zika viruses, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said.
The virus was first identified during an outbreak in southern Tanzania in 1952.
The name is derived from a word in the Kimakonde language, meaning “to become contorted,” in reference to the stooped posture of people with joint pain, or arthralgia.
Chikungunya is characterized by an abrupt onset of fever accompanied by joint pain.
Other symptoms include muscle pain, headache, nausea, fatigue and skin rashes.
The incubation period of the virus is three to seven days.
Most patients recover fully, but joint pain might persist for several weeks or months in some cases. There is no cure for the disease and treatment is focused on relieving the symptoms.
Ninety-nine confirmed cases of chikungunya fever, all imported, have been recorded in Taiwan since the illness was recognized as a contagious disease in 2007, CDC data showed.
Most of the cases originated in Southeast Asia, it said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard