The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday released a processing flow chart and contact tracing guidelines for the handling of monkeypox cases, after the nation’s first case of the disease was reported on Friday.
Nine close contacts of the case have been identified, and their health would be monitored for 21 days, the center said.
The first case is a man in his 20s living in southern Taiwan. He had studied in Germany from January and returned to Taiwan on Thursday last week.
Photo: CNA
Twenty close contacts of the man had been identified as of yesterday morning, but after receiving the guidelines, the local health department revised the number to nine people: three family members, five healthcare practitioners and another person.
CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said the close contacts have not developed any symptoms and are required to monitor their health for 21 days after they were last exposed to the man.
The contact tracing guidelines state that close contacts can be classified into three infection risk categories: high, medium and low.
High or medium-risk contacts should monitor their health for 21 days, during which they are advised to avoid contact with immunocompromised people, children and pregnant women, and avoid having sex.
Low-risk contacts would only receive educational information about the disease.
Chuang said monkeypox is more often transmitted from person to person through intimate physical contact, and can also spread through direct contact with the infectious rash, scabs, body fluids and respiratory droplets, but the risk of transmission while having a short meal together or in similar situations is relatively low.
Taiwan’s first case had a fever, sore throat, muscle aches, a rash and swollen lymph nodes in the groin area on Monday, the CDC said on Friday.
He sought medical attention on Tuesday and Wednesday, and was reported as a suspected case of monkeypox, the center said.
The test result was positive, so he was placed in a negative pressure-isolation room in hospital, it added.
Monkeypox is usually a mild disease, with most of those infected recovering within a few weeks without treatment, so the only treatment prescribed would be symptomatic and supportive, as there is no drug approved specifically to treat monkeypox in Taiwan, Chuang said.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
RSS