The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said that in a bid to limit the spread of infectious diseases during next year’s Summer Universiade, it would employ a “three inspections and three preventions” strategy.
The universiade takes place in Taipei from Aug. 19 to Aug. 30, and is expected to draw contestants and tourists from many countries, so disease-prevention measures must be carefully planned in advance, it said.
It has invited the health departments of eight counties and cities in northern Taiwan to attend a meeting on Feb. 24 next year to discuss infectious-disease prevention and control measures, such as reporting and medical treatment procedures for suspected infection cases and isolation guidelines, the department said.
“Some of the home countries of contestants might still be affected by epidemics, such as Ebola or Middle East respiratory syndrome in African countries or the Zika virus in Latin America,” department Secretary-General Hsu Chao-chen (許朝程) said.
Preventive measures should also be planned against common infectious diseases, such as enteroviruses, dengue fever and influenza, so that outbreaks can be avoided, the department said.
The department is to employ a “three inspections and three preventions” strategy for the period of the Games, it said.
The three inspections are health checks at borders and of participants entering the athletes’ village and measures to detect fevers. The three preventions are increasing public health education aefforts, improving respiratory and hand hygiene, and ensuring that medical facilities are adequately prepared.
Hospitals near the venues are to be designated for receiving and isolating contestants with suspected infections, it said, adding that hopefully suspected infection cases can be detected as soon as possible through the three inspection methods.
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