A cluster outbreak of tuberculosis (TB) at a university in Taipei has been controlled, a senior Department of Health (DOH) official said yesterday.
Eight confirmed cases have been reported at Shih Hsin University since a student there was diagnosed with TB in September last year, the department said.
The September case has been confirmed as the origin of the outbreak, DOH Deputy Director-General Shih Wen-yi (施文儀) said, adding that all eight patients had been given medical treatment.
The department “believes the outbreak has been controlled,” Shih said.
Taipei City Government’s Department of Health has announced that it will launch a blanket health check targeting all 300-plus Shih Hsin students and teachers tomorrow and on Tuesday.
Shih said when the first infections were reported in September last year, the city carried out standard TB screening tests, which included X-rays and bacterial testing of family members or friends living with the patient.
Health checks were also carried out for people who had contact with the patient for at least eight hours a day during the contagious period, and those who had had contact with the patient for an accumulated 40 hours or more within three months before the patient started showing symptoms.
However, despite all the screenings and tests, seven Shih Hsin students fell sick and were confirmed to have been infected with TB since June, the official said.
This means the screening process is incomplete, he said, adding that among the confirmed patients, some had not undergone standard quarantine checks because they were not in the high-risk category.
Citing the city health department’s investigation results, Shih said some dormitories at Shih Hsin had bad ventilation, which could be a reason why the standard screening process failed.
TB is one of the most common notifiable diseases in the country, with more than 13,000 cases recorded last year.
As of Oct. 21, 10,271 people had been confirmed to be infected with TB this year, DOH statistics show.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
BACK TO WINTER: A strong continental cold air mass would move south on Tuesday next week, bringing colder temperatures to northern and central Taiwan A tropical depression east of the Philippines could soon be upgraded to be the first tropical storm of this year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the next cold air mass is forecast to arrive on Monday next week. CWA forecaster Cheng Jie-ren (鄭傑仁) said the first tropical depression of this year is over waters east of the Philippines, about 1,867km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), and could strengthen into Tropical Storm Nokaen by early today. The system is moving slowly from northwest to north, and is expected to remain east of the Philippines with little chance of affecting Taiwan,
RSS