The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said that hospital visits for flu-like illness last week increased 21.2 percent from the previous week, while confirming one case of measles.
The number of flu-like cases totaled 92,475 last week, with the increase centered on northern and central Taiwan, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Liu Ting-ping (劉定萍) said.
Emergency-room visits for flu-like illness accounted for 11.1 percent of the total — near the epidemic threshold of 11.5 percent, CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said.
The nation is likely to enter the peak flu season as early as this week, with the peak activity occurring either before or after the Lunar New Year holiday, the CDC said.
The Lunar New Year is on Jan. 25.
The number of serious flu complications also increased to 45 cases last week, most of whom were infected with the influenza A(H1N1) strain, Liu said, adding that 85.7 percent of the flu cases in the past four weeks were caused by the same strain.
With the second phase of the government-funded flu vaccination program beginning on Dec. 8 — with preschool children and elderly people added to the list — about 2.08 million vaccines had been administered as of Sunday, the CDC said.
Vaccination rates have significantly increased this year, it said.
As of Sunday, about 225,000 vaccines had been administered to preschool children, up 84 percent from the same period last year, and about 640,000 vaccines had been administered to elderly people, up 35 percent, it said.
The CDC said it plans to move up the delivery date of about 595,000 government-funded vaccines to between today and Friday to facilitate distribution by local health departments to healthcare facilities.
Another batch of 1.49 million vaccines is to be delivered by the end of the month and all vaccines should have been delivered by Jan. 3, it said.
The CDC also confirmed one case of measles last week — a woman in her 20s living in northern Taiwan, who works in a hospital and was exposed to a patient who had contracted the disease in Thailand and was confirmed by the CDC on Dec. 3.
The woman is the third person to be confirmed to have contracted the disease in the cluster of cases at the hospital.
The woman complained of fatigue, and had a fever and rashes between Dec. 7 and Dec. 9.
She was diagnosed with measles on Thursday last week and left the hospital on Saturday, Liu said.
The local health department is monitoring 623 people who have had contact with the patient during the communicable period until Dec. 27.
The woman visited the restaurant Bawei Ginger Duck (霸味薑母鴨) on Zhongzheng Road (中正路) in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店區) between 12am and 2am on Dec. 6, so people who visited the restaurant during that period should also look out for symptoms of measles, the CDC said.
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