The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday confirmed seven new measles cases and one case of serious complication caused by an enterovirus infection.
The seven cases were associated with three clusters, two of which originated overseas, it said.
One cluster includes three men in their 20s and 30s who had been at a restaurant with an earlier patient who was infected in Hong Kong, while another cluster includes two men in their 20s who had direct contact with an earlier patient who was infected in Thailand, it added.
The third cluster includes two men in their 20s who work at a central Taiwan hospital where several cases have been reported, the CDC said, adding that a total of 10 cases associated with the cluster have been confirmed.
The man who caught the disease in Hong Kong began experiencing symptoms on March 29, but did not seek medical attention and went to a hot pot restaurant in New Taipei City with his friends the next day, resulting in one of his friends and two strangers becoming infected, CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said.
The second cluster was started by a woman infected in Thailand who went to a restaurant in Taipei, resulting in the infection of a restaurant worker, as well as a man at a medical facility where she sought treatment, he said.
Measles is a highly contagious disease that can spread through the air from person to person, so people in small spaces with poor ventilation, such as an airplane cabin, with an infected person could be infected, even without direct interaction, he added.
A total of 63 measles cases have been confirmed this year: 36 originated in Taiwan — 25 people had direct contact with someone infected — and 27 were imported, the CDC said.
The agency urged people to take precautionary measures and consult a doctor about receiving a vaccine before visiting countries where the disease is spreading, including the Philippines, where more than 28,000 cases have been reported this year; Vietnam, where more than 18,000 suspected cases have been reported since October last year; and Thailand, where nearly 2,000 cases have been reported this year.
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