A seven-year-old girl living in southern Taiwan has been diagnosed with serious complications from enterovirus 71 (EV71), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that parents and caregivers of young children should encourage good personal hygiene, and urged those who are eligible to get a government-funded flu vaccination.
The girl developed a fever and rash on Oct. 8, followed by watery blisters on her hands and feet, oral ulcers and loss of appetite, CDC physician Huang Song-en (黃頌恩) said.
The girl was hospitalized in the evening of Oct. 11 after she had periodic limb movement disorder and changes in consciousness, Huang said.
Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times
The girl was diagnosed with encephalitis associated with EV71.
She was discharged from the hospital on Thursday last week, Huang said, adding that the girl’s younger sister was also diagnosed with enterovirus infection on Oct. 9, and has also recovered.
CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center director Liu Ting-ping (劉定萍) said 15,761 enterovirus infection cases were reported last week.
Although the weekly number of reported cases has dropped by 2.5 percent compared with the week prior and most cases were mild, the disease is still in its peak season, Liu said.
This year, 10 serious enterovirus cases with complications were reported, including one death.
While type A Coxsackievirus is the dominant strain that is spreading, 40 cases of EV71 infection have also been reported this year, CDC disease monitoring data showed.
Symptoms can worsen rapidly, so parents or caregivers of young children with symptoms of drowsiness, poor vitality, unconsciousness, myoclonus, continuous vomiting or rapid heartbeat should take them to see a doctor immediately, the CDC said, urging good personal hygiene to prevent infections.
While temperatures are dropping, those who are eligible for the government-funded flu vaccination should have it done as soon as possible, the CDC said, adding that as of Sunday last week, more than half of the government-funded vaccines had been administered.
Meanwhile, the CDC announced yesterday that listeriosis, a serious food-borne bacterial infection caused by Listeria monocytogenes, is to be added to the nation’s list of group 4 notifiable infectious diseases next year.
Huang said most infections of listeriosis in adults are mild, but can be very serious for pregnant women, newborns, elderly people and people with impaired immune systems.
In serious cases, the infection might cause a miscarriage, fetal death or neonatal death because of septicemia or meningitis, Huang added.
Listeriosis infections are most often contracted through eating contaminated salad, raw fish or dairy products, CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said, adding that between 50 and 100 cases are reported in Taiwan every year.
After the disease is listed as a group 4 notifiable infectious disease, healthcare practitioners would be required to report such cases to their local health department within 72 hours after a confirmed diagnosis.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,