Nearly 140,000 people sought medical treatment for diarrhea last week, as 64 clusters of diarrhea cases were reported over the past four weeks, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said in a news release on Monday, advising people to maintain good hand hygiene and food safety practices during the Lunar New Year holiday.
From Jan. 8 to Saturday last week, 139,728 people went to see a doctor for diarrhea — higher than the 104,114 and 116,497 cases reported in the same period last year and in 2021 respectively, the CDC’s surveillance data showed.
A total of 64 clusters of diarrhea cases were also reported in the past four weeks, higher than the 54 clusters reported in the same period last year, it said.
Photo: CNA
Twenty-eight of the clusters, or 44 percent, were caused by norovirus infection, it added.
There are many types of noroviruses and people at any age can be infected by consuming contaminated food or water; by touching their mouth, nose, or eyes after having touched contaminated objects; or by direct and close contact with an infected person or inhaling the droplets of vomit or feces from an infected person, it said.
Symptoms usually begin one to three days after infection, it said.
Common symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramps, the CDC said.
Other symptoms include nausea, fever, headache, abdominal and muscle pain, which can last between one and 10 days, the center said.
To prevent norovirus infection, people should practice good hand hygiene and food safety — including handling and storing raw and cooked food separately, and avoiding raw or undercooked eggs, meat or seafood — when gathering for the holiday, it said.
It also urged people, especially food industry workers, who develop symptoms of norovirus infection to stay at home and rest, and only return to work or school 48 hours after their symptoms are relieved.
Separately, the Central Epidemic Command Center yesterday reported 19,658 new local COVID-19 infections, including 312 imported cases, and 30 deaths.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS