The Taipei Department of Health yesterday confirmed cases of tuberculosis (TB) infection among National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) students, with three confirmed, five who exhibit symptoms of the disease and 68 who had contact with the first confirmed case and are taking pre-exposure oral medication.
The Chinese-language Apple Daily yesterday reported that a student from the university’s physics department told the newspaper that eight students were suspected of having tuberculosis and the university had demanded that students and teachers take a blood test or pay a fine, which the student said was a breach of autonomy.
The department said it received a report of the first confirmed TB case in December last year and began tracing people who had contact with the student.
Huang Chi-ching (黃繼慶), an official from the department’s Division for Disease Control and Prevention, said the department screened 176 people who have had contact with the first infected person for more than eight hours a day or more than 40 cumulative hours, and 68 people were found with latent TB infection and are now taking medication.
He said latent TB infection can be cured by taking medication for about six to nine months.
The second and third cases at the university were confirmed in March and last month. Both were diagnosed with the same strain of TB virus as the first case, Huang said, adding that five people showed symptoms of TB and are waiting for sputum culture results to confirm whether they have been infected.
University spokesman Huang Chao-hsi (黃兆璽) said that the “confirmed cases were isolated from other people within a month, and given medication for more than two weeks.”
“They were allowed to return to the student dormitory after we made sure that transmissibility has been significantly reduced,” he said.
The health department said common symptoms of TB are a persistent cough, chest pain, weight loss, fatigue, loss of appetite, fever and coughing up blood.
Based on the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法), people who have been exposed to confirmed TB cases should be tested for the disease and those who refuse may be fined between NT$3,000 and NT$15,000, he said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
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Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
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