The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported a new measles case in northern Taiwan and warned that chicken pox is most common during winter and spring, saying that young children should receive vaccinations and maintain good hand hygiene and cough etiquette.
The new confirmed measles case is a woman in her 30s living in New Taipei City who has taken public buses and visited clinics and hospitals during the communicability period, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Liu Ting-ping (劉定萍) said.
The agency’s preliminary estimate is that about 480 people had direct contact with the woman and would be monitored for symptoms until Friday next week, she said.
The woman visited Thailand from Nov. 7 to Nov. 16; began experiencing the symptoms of fever, throat pain, rashes and shortness of breath on Nov. 21; and first sought treatment at a clinic on Nov. 22, CDC physician Huang Wan-ting (黃婉婷) said.
She was diagnosed with a cold on her first and second visits to a clinic for treatment, Huang said, adding that she on Monday last week sought treatment at a hospital, where doctors initially suspected that she had a urinary tract infection.
However, test results on Saturday confirmed that the woman had contracted measles, Huang said, adding that she remained hospitalized.
The woman had taken public bus route No. 644 and the Zhongxiao (忠孝) Taipei Metro Bus line on Nov. 18 and the Green 8 route in New Taipei City on Nov. 19 and Nov. 20, the CDC said.
People who took buses on those routes on those days who experience measles symptoms — fever, rhinitis, conjunctivitis, coughing and rashes — should wear a surgical mask and seek medical attention immediately, it said.
As the woman has asthma, the shortness of breath she experienced along with the onset of other symptoms, which are common indicators of a measles infection, might have led doctors to misdiagnose her, because the disease has not been spreading in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said.
Measles is at its peak in Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries, so people who plan to visit the region should consult a doctor about receiving a vaccination in advance and inform doctors about their travel if they develop a fever or rashes after returning to Taiwan, he said.
Separately, 861 hospital visits for chicken pox were reported last week, more than the previous two weeks, and 16 cluster cases have been reported in the past four weeks, mostly on school campuses, Liu said.
Chicken pox is a highly contagious viral disease that can spread from person to person by direct contact and inhalation of airborne droplets of saliva, and it is contagious from five days before a rash appears until all blisters have dried and crusted, Huang said.
Children younger than one, pregnant women and people with immunodeficiency disorders have a higher risk of contracting chicken pox, Lo said, adding that the best prevention is to get the varicella vaccine.
A government-funded first dose should be administered to infants at 12 months of age, while children aged four to six can receive an out-of-pocket second dose before starting elementary school, he said.
In related news, the CDC said the second phase of government-funded seasonal flu vaccinations for preschool-age children and people aged at least 65 would begin on Sunday.
People who are eligible should get vaccinated at one of the nation’s 4,090 contracted healthcare facilities and local health centers as soon as possible, it said.
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,