The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday confirmed a cluster of seven indigenous cases of dengue fever in Kaohsiung’s Sanmin District (三民) and urged people to be on the lookout for mosquito breeding grounds.
Three women and three men aged 40 to 70 from the district’s Dingjin (鼎金) and Dingsi (鼎西) boroughs comprise six of the cases, the CDC said.
They are likely associated with a case in Dingjin that was announced on Wednesday, as they all live within a 250m radius, the centers said.
The six people had not traveled overseas recently and started showing symptoms from Monday to Thursday last week, CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said, adding that they were all confirmed to be infected with dengue virus serotype 4.
They are isolated in hospital to prevent transmission through mosquito bites, he said, adding that people who have had direct contact with them had shown no signs of dengue fever.
The Kaohsiung City Government on Thursday launched emergency dengue prevention and control measures, deploying more than 400 personnel to six boroughs near the six patients’ residences to inspect the environment and raise public awareness about the disease.
Eight indigenous dengue cases have been confirmed so far this year, all in Kaohsiung, the CDC said.
There have also been 153 imported dengue cases, the highest number for the period in 10 years, it said, adding that most of the imported cases were from Southeast Asian countries, including 55 from Indonesia and 32 from Vietnam.
Common symptoms include sudden onset of fever, headaches, pain behind the eyes, joint and muscle pain, and rashes, the CDC said, urging people with symptoms to immediately seek medical assistance and tell medical staff about their recent travel history.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS