The Taipei City Hospital’s Renai Branch on Friday reported an outbreak of influenza type A, saying that it had confirmed 13 cases.
Of 19 people initially suspected to have contracted the virus, two were found to be suffering from sinusitis, but anti-viral drugs were administered to the remaining 17, hospital director Hsiao Sheng-huang (蕭勝煌) said.
Following rapid influenza diagnostic tests, 13 people were confirmed with influenza type A, seven of whom were hospitalized patients, while two caregivers and four hospital staff have also contracted the virus, he said.
The cases were first discovered on the western side of the hospital’s sixth floor on Monday, so the hospital quarantined those affected and reported its findings to the Taipei Department of Health, hospital chief medical officer Chen Shu-ting (陳淑廷) said.
“We conducted quarantine and control measures, including mandatory hand-washing and wearing of facial masks and also administered drugs, so the situation was under control,” Hsiao said.
“Although we always stress the importance of wearing masks and washing hands, it was difficult to regulate family members coming in and out,” he said.
The western side of the sixth floor is for rehabilitating patients, but physical therapy sessions are on the first floor, so patients, family members and healthcare staff often move in and out of the area, he said.
No further infections were discovered after the hospital took measures to prevent the virus from spreading and all 19 patients have now recovered from their fevers, he said.
The virus is mainly spread via droplet transmission and infected people — even if they are not yet showing symptoms — can spread the virus just by talking to other people, Taipei Division for Disease Control and Prevention official Huang Chi-ching (黃繼慶) said.
“We always suggest people wear facial masks when visiting a hospital,” he said. “Viruses spread more quickly than doctors can diagnose infections and administer antiviral drugs to stem their spread.”
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:
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