This year’s first Zika virus case was yesterday confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), which also said it had recorded five new measles cases.
A teenage boy was with his family visiting relatives in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City from Feb. 5, and developed a fever on Thursday last week, the centers said.
When he returned to Taiwan on Friday last week, the boy was screened for infection at the airport quarantine station due to his fever, the centers said.
The results came back yesterday, with the boy testing positive for the Zika virus, it said.
While his symptoms have already improved and his family members have not developed similar symptoms, the boy is to be quarantined at home until Monday next week, the centers said.
Twenty-one Zika virus cases have been confirmed in Taiwan since 2016, all of which were contracted in other countries — mostly Southeast Asian countries.
The centers maintained its level two travel advisory for Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Singapore, India and the Maldives, as well as a few areas where the disease is still spreading.
People are advised to take preventive measures against mosquito bites and sexual transmission of the disease in those areas, the centers said.
The centers on Tuesday confirmed two indigenous cases of measles — a woman in her 20s and an eight-month-old baby — and yesterday reported another three — two women and a man, all in their 30s.
They all live in northern Taiwan.
The woman in her 20s and the three people in their 30s were all in contact with a patient who was infected with measles in Vietnam, the centers said, adding that the infant’s infection source is still under investigation.
The two women who were yesterday confirmed to have measles worked at a clinic in Taipei where the patient sought treatment, and the man who contracted it was a family member who had accompanied the patient to a hospital, it said.
As the woman in her twenties had traveled on a bus in Taipei and the Taipei Mass Rapid Transit system on Feb. 14 during the communicable period, and the others who were infected had also visited public spaces in Taipei, people who have measles symptoms are advised to wear a mask and immediately seek medical treatment, the centers said.
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