The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said that seven cases of enterovirus infection with severe complications have been reported in Taiwan so far this year, urging the public to pay attention to personal hygiene, especially people who come in contact with infants.
CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center director Liu Ting-ping (劉定萍) said the epidemic period of enterovirus infection is still going on, with 26,886 cases reported last week, a 3.4 percent rise from the previous week’s number.
CDC physician Philip Yi-chun Lo (羅一鈞) cited the case of a two-year-old girl who was taken to hospital on May 26 after she developed a fever and herpangina (mouth blisters) from coxsackievirus A5, a lower classification of enterovirus.
Lo said that her symptoms developed into convulsions, gait instability and sleepiness the next day, and she was immediately taken to an intensive care unit.
The girl recovered after treatment and was discharged from hospital on June 3, Lo said, adding that her parents did not exhibit similar symptoms and she was not exposed to other children with enterovirus before the onset.
The girl had visited a classroom where her older brother took lessons, so the source of infection could be the classroom, Lo said.
He said the cases of coxsackievirus A5 with severe complications reported across Taiwan in the past few years were all in infants under the age of three, so infants are a high-risk group for infection with severe complications, and that parents and families with infants at home should pay close attention to personal hygiene and frequently wash their hands.
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