Hospital visits for diarrhea have declined for the past two weeks, but last week’s 255,775 visits were still the most for the same week in five years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday.
Hospital visits for diarrhea last week were down 9 percent from the previous week, CDC Deputy Director-General and spokeswoman Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) said.
However, hospital visits last week were still the highest for the same week in five years, Tseng said, adding that among 274 clusters of diarrhea cases reported in the past four weeks, most were linked to restaurant or hotel visits.
Photo: CNA
Of the 156 clusters that were tested for pathogens, 97.4 percent were caused by norovirus infection, she added.
Norovirus is a highly contagious virus and people of any age can get infected through direct exposure to contaminated food, water and surfaces, or through inhalation or ingestion of tiny particles of feces or vomit from an infected person, the CDC said.
Common symptoms of norovirus infection include vomiting and diarrhea, and other symptoms may include stomach cramping, stomachache, muscle ache, fever, nausea and headache, it said.
“As diarrhea cases remain high, we want to remind the public to pay attention to hand and food hygiene, to reduce the risk of contracting or spreading gastrointestinal tract infections,” Tseng said.
The CDC urged people to wash their hands thoroughly with soap and water before preparing food and eating, as well as after using the toilet; store raw and cooked foods separately to avoid cross-contamination; and cook seafood, especially shellfish, thoroughly to reduce the risk of norovirus infection.
Meanwhile, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) said data showed that the main respiratory pathogen in the past four weeks was the influenza (flu) virus, with influenza A(H1N1) being the dominant strain.
There were 111,189 hospital visits for flu-like illness last week, the fourth consecutive week of declines, Guo said.
However, 44 severe flu cases and 22 flu-related deaths were reported, he added.
On Saturday the CDC received a report from Japan’s contact under the WHO’s International Health Regulations that a Japanese woman in her 20s from Akashi City in Hyogo Prefecture was diagnosed with measles, and had visited Taipei and New Taipei City during her incubation period, Tseng said.
The Japanese woman developed a fever on March 1, arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in the afternoon of March 2 on a VietJet Air flight from Osaka, took the Taoyuan Airport MRT line to Taipei Main Station and the Taipei MRT’s Tamsui-Xinyi Line (Red Line), Tseng said.
On Monday last week, the woman took the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle bus to and from Taipei Railway Station to Jiufen (九份) in New Taipei City’s Rueifang District (瑞芳), and in the evening ate at a hotpot restaurant in Taipei’s Datong District (大同), Tseng added.
The woman took the Taoyuan Airport MRT line to Taoyuan airport at noon on Tuesday last week, where she boarded a VietJet Air flight to Osaka in the afternoon, Tseng said.
The approximate times she visited the locations are on the CDC’s official Web site, Tseng said.
The CDC has informed local health departments to conduct contact tracing and people who have visited the locations at about the same time as the woman should monitor their health for 18 days, avoid public venues, wear a mask and seek medical attention if they develop fever, coughing, rashes, rhinitis, inflamed eyes (conjunctivitis) or other suspected measles symptoms, she added.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
RSS