The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on Tuesday raised its alert level for Vietnam for the Zika virus after it reported Taiwan’s second Zika infection case this year.
Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Liu Ting-ping (劉定萍) said a Taiwanese in his 30s working in Vietnam from June 24 began suffering pain behind his eyes and below his ears, and developed skin rashes.
He took some over-the-counter drugs to relieve the symptoms, but did not seek medical treatment before flying home to Taipei on Sept. 23, Liu said.
The man went see a doctor on Wednesday last week, and tests results received on Sunday confirmed that he had been infected with Zika, she said.
After the man’s symptoms disappeared, he returned to Vietnam for work, she said.
A total of 19 confirmed cases of Zika have been reported in Taiwan since 2016 — 13 cases that year, four cases last year and two cases this year — all of whom had been infected while abroad, Liu said.
Five of the patients were from Vietnam, four were from Thailand, and two each were from the Philippines and from Malaysia, while a few cases originated in other countries, she said.
Typical symptoms of Zika are similar to dengue fever, but milder, including fever, rashes, joint pain and conjunctivis, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said.
However, about 80 percent of people infected with the Zika virus show no symptoms, Lin said.
Women should be aware that infection during pregnancy can lead to congenital Zika syndrome and other birth defects, Lin said.
People who have traveled to areas where Zika is spreading should implement the “1+6 principle” for Zika transmission prevention, the CDC said.
The principle is: Do not donate blood for at least one month after being in a Zika-outbreak area, use a condom during sex for at least six months and (for women) do not get pregnant for at least six months.
Zika is a mosquito-borne disease and Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are believed to be the main carriers of the virus.
In related news, Liu said eight indigenous dengue cases were confirmed last week, including five in Taichung, and one each in New Taipei City, Changhua County and Kaohsiung.
Additional reporting staff writer
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods