Hospital visits for enterovirus infection continued to increase last week and are approaching a 10-year high, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday.
Cases have surpassed the peak of the summer outbreak and are expected to continue to increase until mid-to-late next month, the agency said, advising caregivers to help children practice good hygiene to prevent infection.
There were 26,077 hospital visits for enterovirus infection last week, up 14.8 percent from the previous week, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said.
Photo: Taipei Times
While enterovirus outbreaks usually peak during the summer, recent weekly hospital visits have already surpassed the peak weekly number this summer (20,382) and are nearing the 10-year record of 27,013 visits, she said.
While 46 percent of the cases last week were small children aged four or younger, the ratio of older children falling sick has been increasing in the past few weeks, Lee said.
Children aged five to nine accounted for 38 percent and those aged 10 to 14 made up 10 percent, she said.
CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said the 14.8 percent increase in hospital visits last week was higher than previous weeks, so the agency has revised its forecast by pushing back the estimated peak period for the outbreak to mid-or-late next month.
Winter outbreaks of enterovirus are less frequent, with the previous one occurring in 2016 to 2017, he said, adding that an estimated 29,000 to 30,000 hospital visits are projected for the peak week this year, and the winter outbreak might fall below the epidemic threshold (11,000 visits per week) in mid-to-late January.
As coxsackievirus A16 remains the dominant strain, the likely reason behind the rise in the number of cases and infections among older children is because very few were infected during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in a decline of herd immunity — so called “immunity debt,” Lo said.
The CDC has asked elementary and junior-high schools to encourage children to practice good hygiene to prevent the spread of the disease, he added.
Meanwhile, 70,718 hospital visits for flu-like illnesses were reported last week, and the accumulated 250 serious flu cases — including 41 deaths, all of whom were unvaccinated — since the start of the season on Oct. 1 are the highest numbers during the same period in a decade, Lee said.
Lo said the average flu vaccination coverage rates this season have reached 40.9 percent for people aged 65 or older and 53.8 percent for pre-elementary-school children.
Keelung has achieved a remarkable 74.2 coverage rate for young children, he added.
Invited to share his strategy, Keelung Department of Health Director Chang Shian-cheng (張賢政) said the city used multiple approaches to promote flu vaccination, including localized TV and radio broadcasts, social media (such as the city’s parent-child care account on Line), digital advertising boards at workplaces and playgrounds, as well as sending customized messages.
The department also encouraged clinics to become contracted flu vaccination sites — 31 percent of the city’s clinics and hospitals administer flu vaccines, including all clinics in the central government’s “Holistic Physicians for Young Children” project, he said.
Nighttime and weekend vaccination stations were also opened to increase accessibility, he said.
Chang encouraged other local health departments to also make good use of their resources and strengths to promote flu vaccination.
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