The human papillomavirus (HPV) could survive in warm and humid environments for more than a day, an urologist in Kaohsiung said after a 50-year-old woman said she suspects she contracted the virus from a sauna and spread it to her daughter.
The patient, who was diagnosed with genital warts, said she only has one sexual partner — her husband — and that her husband has been faithful to her, said Cheng Pin-jui (鄭斌睿), director of the Kaomei Urologic Clinic’s branch on Cisian Road, on Monday.
Her daughter, who is in the sixth grade, was later discovered to also have been infected.
The virus may have been transmitted to the daughter through a shared towel, he said.
Since genital warts have an incubation period of three weeks to nine months, the daughter might have contracted the virus before her mother showed any symptoms, he said.
While genital warts are most often spread through sexual contact, they can also be transmitted “indirectly” at public facilities — such as toilets and saunas, he said.
Typically, the HPV types that cause genital warts survive just two to three hours outside the human body, he said, adding that if the virus is in a warm and humid environment, it can survive more than a day.
If someone then makes skin contact with a contaminated surface, they could be infected, he said.
People should cover the lower halves of their bodies with a clean towel when they are at the sauna or hot spring to avoid direct contact with public facilities, he said.
The HPV vaccine also lowers the risk of contracting the virus, he said.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
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