The Greater Kaohsiung City Government on Tuesday reported four more deaths from dengue fever, bringing the virus’ toll to 13 this year and prompting the Control Yuan to demand an explanation from health and environmental authorities.
The southern municipality’s health bureau said three of the five patients admitted to hospitals for dengue hemorrhagic fever — a more serious manifestation of the disease that afflicts a small percentage of cases — between Friday last week and Monday had died, just days after another death was confirmed on Nov. 5.
All of the deceased were between 64 and 79 years old and had histories of high blood pressure, heart disease, or rheumatoid or metabolic arthritis, the bureau said.
As of Monday, the Kaohsiung government had reported 10,101 indigenous cases of dengue. Of the 80 who developed severe dengue hemorrhagic fever, 61 have recovered, six are still in the hospital and 13 have died.
The bureau said the local administration has tried all available means to stamp out the breeding of mosquitoes — which carry the virus — including by using sea water to flush the municipality’s drainage system in a bid to kill the insect’s larvae.
The bureau reported that the sea water tactic met with initial success, saying that of 200 larvae flushed with seawater only two had survived, indicating a rate of “99 percent effectiveness [that] is within our expectations.”
Yet the seemingly effective solution has come a bit too late for the nation’s watchdog, as two Control Yuan members on Tuesday began investigating whether health and environmental authorities at national and local levels have been remiss in their responses to the outbreak.
In a press release, the Control Yuan said members Jane Chiang (江綺雯) and Teresa Yin (尹祚芊) will look into why the number of dengue fever cases this year has been 9.2 times higher than that seen four years ago.
The Control Yuan in 2011 reprimanded the Ministry of Health and Welfare (then the Department of Health) for failing to keep the public safe from dengue.
Even so, 10,600 cases of dengue were reported nationally this year, with Kaohsiung alone accounting for 95 percent —10,101 cases — as of Monday, the statement said.
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