The Center for Disease Control (CDC,
Responding to the extensive media coverage of unconfirmed but suspected cases of hantavirus infection around the nation, the CDC announced that it will no longer talk about suspected cases until laboratory confirmations have been made. The CDC said there was no need for the public to panic.
Since hantavirus was confirmed as the cause of the mysterious death earlier this month of Wu Mu-kuei (
The CDC yesterday denied that it had received any information about more suspected cases of hantavirus infection. The media had reported that cases had been found in Taipei and Ilan County. Tu Hsing-che (涂醒哲), director-general of the CDC, also emphasized that a patient hospitalized in Hualien has not been confirmed as having been infected with hantavirus.
The CDC said Taiwan laboratories previously lacked samples of hantavirus to develop the capacity to confirm infections. He said the CDC had therefore requested four local hospitals to simultaneously conduct lab analysis for confirmation of suspected cases reported to the CDC.
Tu said that only after completion of a peer review process by scholars and doctors would the CDC be prepared to release information about confirmed cases. "That's why it takes time to confirm a case," Tu said.
He said that a patient in Hualien who lives only about 1km from a marble factory owned by the deceased couple is suspected to be infected with hantavirus, but there is no official confirmation of her infection supported by the required laboratory analysis and professional discussion.
Tu firmly stated yesterday that the CDC would only reveal confirmed cases to the media to avoid "unnecessarily frightening the public."
"The public should focus on killing rats instead of worrying about suspected cases, especially as hantavirus is not transmitted from person to person," he said.
Tu said preliminary analysis of the hantavirus sample from Wu and his wife shows that it might have entered Taiwan from China via rats during the course of smuggling operations. The CDC has recently targeted Kinmen for rat-killing programs after the opening of the "small three links" with China.
Tu said more lab tests must be done before it can be ascertained whether the virus is a mutation of the Chinese type or other types of hantavirus.
Shen Chen-yang (
Shen said Taiwan is not very likely to have a deadly outbreak of hantavirus infections.
"Deer mice, the kind of rat that carries the virus which causes the hantavirus pulmonary syndrome that killed the Hualien couple, haven't been found in Taiwan," Shen said.
Shen agreed that the hantavirus that killed the couple might have come from China.
He said rats of certain species were found at a local port where there is intensive smuggling from China. He said these rats appear in China on traditional farms.
"Taiwan should take measures to quarantine to avoid diseases from China after the three direct links begin," he said.
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