About 900 people have been listed as close contacts of a student at National Taiwan University (NTU) who was diagnosed with tuberculosis, a case authorities have determined as an isolated infection rather than a cluster, Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday.
Speaking after a Cabinet meeting, Shih said that after a foreign student at NTU was diagnosed with tuberculosis, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Taipei Department of Health drew up a list of close contacts to monitor their health.
Shih said that those who spent more than eight hours in the same space as the infected student on a single day, or had more than 40 hours of cumulative contact, were listed as close contacts.
Photo: CNA
Possible contacts would get chest X-rays and have their blood drawn to check for infection, including latent cases, Shih said, adding that cooperating with the screening is required by law.
Shih said the number of close contacts is relatively high, as authorities traced exposure back to the student’s time of diagnosis and arrival in Taiwan.
Nevertheless, he reiterated that the case is being treated as a single infection rather than a cluster.
CDC spokesman Lin Min-cheng (林明誠) said he could not confirm when the student arrived in Taiwan, but added that the infectious period has lasted more than three months, contributing to the high number of close contacts.
The origin of the infection is still being investigated, Lin said.
According to the WHO, tuberculosis is an infectious disease caused by bacteria that most often affects the lungs and can spread through the air when people with the disease cough or sneeze.
As of Dec. 3, the CDC had identified 5,019 cases in Taiwan this year.
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
Trips for more than 100,000 international and domestic air travelers could be disrupted as China launches a military exercise around Taiwan today, Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said yesterday. The exercise could affect nearly 900 flights scheduled to enter the Taipei Flight Information Region (FIR) during the exercise window, it added. A notice issued by the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration showed there would be seven temporary zones around the Taiwan Strait which would be used for live-fire exercises, lasting from 8am to 6pm today. All aircraft are prohibited from entering during exercise, it says. Taipei FIR has 14 international air routes and
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