A Taichung doctor has drawn attention to Crohn’s disease after a boy was diagnosed with the condition.
Asia University Hospital Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology doctor Chen Te-ching (陳德慶) said the hospital has admitted a grade-school student who complained of diarrhea and a fever that had persisted for several days.
The boy was initially diagnosed with gastroenteritis, but his condition did not improve after a week in hospital, which prompted doctors to perform a colonoscopy, he said.
Cultures collected during the procedure confirmed that the boy had Crohn’s disease, Chen said.
The disease is considered rare in Taiwan, with only 0.2 people out of 100,000 diagnosed with it, Chen said.
It is an autoimmune disease that usually causes chronic inflammation in the intestinal and stomach area, which leads to malabsorption of nutrients, he said, adding that the disease is mostly diagnosed in people 20 to 40 years old.
The disease can develop in any part of the gastrointestinal tract from the mouth to the anus, Chen said, but added that the small intestine and the colon are usually the most affected areas.
Its symptoms are similar to those of gastroenteritis, including diarrhea, stomach pain, malabsorption and bloody stool, which often causes it to be misdiagnosed as gastroenteritis, Chen said.
Left untreated, Crohn’s disease could cause hepatitis, arthritis, iritis and uveitis, he said.
It is a chronic illness and difficult to treat completely, and usually patients need to take medication for life, he added.
Steroids are usually prescribed to treat an acute attack of the disease, while chronic patients are usually prescribed immunomodulator medication, Chen said, adding that surgery is recommended should medication prove ineffective.
People with Crohn’s disease should maintain a low-residue diet to prevent exciting the stomach and intestines, Chen said.
Patients should not stop taking medicine on their own and should undergo routine checkups, he said.
The causes of Crohn’s disease are unknown and could be tied to environmental, immune or bacterial factors, Chen said, adding that some people could be genetically susceptible to the disease.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Snow fell on Yushan (Jade Mountain, 玉山) yesterday morning as a continental cold air mass sent temperatures below freezing on Taiwan’s tallest peak, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Snowflakes were seen on Yushan’s north peak from 6:28am to 6:38am, but they did not fully cover the ground and no accumulation was recorded, the CWA said. As of 7:42am, the lowest temperature recorded across Taiwan was minus-5.5°C at Yushan’s Fengkou observatory and minus-4.7°C at the Yushan observatory, CWA data showed. On Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County, a low of 1.3°C was recorded at 6:39pm, when ice pellets fell at Songsyue Lodge (松雪樓), a
RSS