A woman yesterday became Taiwan’s first confirmed domestic cholera case in two years after consuming raw oysters and shrimp, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said.
The 40-year-old woman from central Taiwan developed persistent diarrhea on Oct. 18, CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) told a news conference.
She was admitted to hospital four days later, he said, adding that her condition had worsened, and she was experiencing vertigo, nausea and watery diarrhea.
Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times
Doctors took a fecal bacterial sample, from which they detected signs of cholera, he added.
The CDC received the hospital’s report on Friday last week and its scientists found that the woman had cholera of the O1-Ogawa strain, he said.
The woman has a history of high blood pressure, cancer and stomach ulcers, and regularly takes strong stomach medicine, he said, adding that she had not traveled domestically or internationally in the weeks before contracting the disease.
The CDC determined that she contracted the disease from seafood, which she prepared and ate at home, Chuang said.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare has begun testing samples taken from the woman’s family members and tracing the source of contamination, he said, adding that the two people living with the woman have no symptoms.
Taiwan reported seven indigenous cholera cases in 2018, no cases in 2019, one case in 2020 and no cases last year, he said, adding that no imported cases have been reported in the past few years.
Cholera is an acute bacterial infectious disease with an asymptomatic period of two to three days, he said, adding that contaminated food or water are its main transmission vectors.
People with low or suppressed stomach acid levels, past stomach removal surgeries or a compromised immune system are more susceptible to the disease, while people with healthy digestive systems can ingest a comparatively large quantity of the bacteria without contracting the disease, Chuang said.
Vibrio cholerae, the bacterium that causes the disease, is typically found in dirty water, he said, adding that the seafood the woman ate might have been harvested from contaminated water.
The CDC recommends people to consume only fully cooked food and boiled water, arrange kitchens in a way that avoids the cross-contamination of ingredients, and wash their hands frequently, he said.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
China’s newest Type-076 amphibious assault ship has two strengths and weaknesses, wrote a Taiwanese defense expert, adding that further observations of its capabilities are warranted. Jiang Hsin-biao (江炘杓), an assistant researcher at the National Defense and Security Research, made the comments in a report recently published by the institute about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military and political development. China christened its new assault ship Sichuan in a ceremony on Dec. 27 last year at Shanghai’s Hudong Shipyard, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. “The vessel, described as the world’s largest amphibious assault ship by the [US think tank] Center for Strategic and International
RSS