The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on Tuesday confirmed that a man in northern Taiwan was diagnosed with the measles last week and urged those planning to visit countries where the disease has been reported to take precautions to prevent infection.
A man in his 20s in northern Taiwan began experiencing fatigue and fever on Dec. 2, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) said, adding that he went to see a doctor twice that day and the next, and again on Wednesday last week as rashes developed on his skin.
The man was diagnosed with measles and reported to the CDC on Monday, Guo said, adding that the man travels by bicycle and mostly stayed at home after the onset of symptoms, so only 173 people had direct contact with him during the communicability period.
They are now being monitored until Dec. 27, Guo said.
The man did not visit other countries during the incubation period, so he might have been infected by someone with a mild case of the measles at one of his workplaces as a home renovator, CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said.
Thirty-six measles cases have been confirmed this year, with nine contracted in foreign countries, and 21 cases associated with one man who contracted the disease on a trip to Thailand and infected fellow passengers on a Tigerair Taiwan flight in March, Chuang said.
Measles is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus and is spread through the air by breathing, coughing or sneezing, he said, adding that the incubation period lasts seven to 18 days from exposure to the onset of fever and the condition can be contagious from four days before to four days after the rash appears.
As the winter break and the Lunar New Year holidays are approaching, people who are planning to visit countries where measles are prevalent are urged to seek advice from a travel clinic to evaluate whether they need to get vaccinated four to six weeks before the trip, he said.
The CDC has issued a Level 1 (“watch”) travel notice for measles in 23 countries, including China, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, India, the UK, France and Italy.
People who experience symptoms such as fever, coughing, rhinitis, conjunctivitis and rashes should wear a mask and seek treatment, Chuang said, adding that they should tell their doctor if they traveled abroad and whether they are vaccinated.
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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