People should wash their hands and cook food thoroughly during Mid-Autumn Festival barbeques amid a surge of enterovirus infections, a top health official said yesterday.
Taiwan has reported an increase in enterovirus cases, including norovirus infections, at the end of summer, when the transmission season has typically ended, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper).
The situation might be linked to travel and social gatherings increasing after the COVID-19 pandemic, Lo said, adding that 74 groups of students had been sent home during the first week of classes in the new semester in a bid to prevent enterovirus outbreaks.
Photo: Chen Yu-jui, Taipei Times
About 14,000 enterovirus cases are being reported per week and the rate is unlikely to drop due to increased risks of community spread during the Mid-Autumn Festival, he said.
The CDC is especially concerned about norovirus, which has been the cause of more than half of the cases in the past four months, Lo said, adding that enteroviruses are resistant to alchohol and can only be killed by washing with soap.
Norovirus is known as the “Ferrari” of viruses at the CDC for its ability to rip through communities with a minute amount of fecal contamination, he said.
People should make sure shellfish are cooked properly, because improperly barbecued oysters have been linked to 47 norovirus outbreaks in the past six months, he said.
Oysters should be cooked to a core temperature of 66°C to neutralize norovirus, meaning they should remain on the heat for three to five minutes after their shells have opened, he said.
Separately, newborns and elderly people would be eligible for subsidized influenza and COVID-19 vaccines starting next month, Lo said, adding that other groups would be eligible after that.
Taiwan has access to more types of flu vaccines than ever, with products from Adimmune, Sanofi, BioPharm, Medigen and GSK available, he said.
The vaccines confer good protection against the H1N1A and H3N2A subtypes of influenza A, as well as several subtypes of influenza B, including H3N2, which has been reported in Thailand, Lo said.
People are twice as likely to have severe symptoms or die from COVID-19 than the common flu, despite significant progress in reducing the danger posed by SARS-CoV-2, he said.
Taiwan offers subsidized COVID-19 vaccines, as the disease remains a threat to public health, he said, adding that jabs designed to counter the JN.1 variant would be available from December.
People should be inoculated against influenza and COVID-19 before expected flare-ups of the diseases in November and December, he said, adding that masks alone do not provide adequate protection.
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