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2010-04-12 18:34:27 - Epidemic Hazard - Taiwan EDIS CODE: EH-20100412-25668-TWN
Date & Time: 2010-04-12 18:34:27 [UTC]
Area: Taiwan, , , Wugu !!! ALERT !!! Number of Infected person(s): 1
Not confirmed information! Description: The Department of Health’s Centers for Disease Control confirmed April 9 that a 36-year-old man in Taipei County’s Wugu Township had contracted the Category 2 contagion hantavirus hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. Lin Kuo-ning, head of the Taipei County Public Health Bureau’s Disease Control Division, said the man first experienced nosebleeds and coughing March 8 and went to the emergency room March 18 with a high fever. Fortunately the doctor realized the symptoms were unusual and immediately hospitalized the patient. Upon complete recovery he was released March 26, and blood tests showed his was the first confirmed case of hantavirus hemorrhagic fever since 2009. Although none of the man’s family members living with him showed any symptoms, blood samples were taken and health workers set rodent traps in the man’s home and work place to try to locate the source of the virus. The Public Health Bureau will coordinate with the Environmental Protection Bureau to eradicate rats in the area. Lin said HFRS is carried by rodents, most commonly in Taiwan the Tanezumi rat and Brown rat. It spreads to humans when they breathe in the virus or come in contact with rat secretions or saliva infected with it. It has an incubation period of two to four weeks. If treatment is not received in the first twenty days, after the patient’s fever subsides they may go into shock and die from sudden hypotension and hemorrhaging. If the disease is identified early, however, the death rate is not high. CDC officials said hantavirus is not normally transmitted among humans, with only one case of human transmission of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome known to have occurred in Argentina. According to CDC statistics, from 1997 to 2007, 382 cases of possible HFRS were reported in Taiwan, with nine cases verified. Two cases of HPS out of 115 reported cases were confirmed in that time. Wugu Township chief Chang Dang-mu said April 10 that he was unaware that a Wugu resident had contracted hantavirus, but immediately called on the township health office and cleaning squad to coordinate sanitation of the whole area. (THN)
The name of Hazard: Hantavirus
Species: Human
Status: Confirmed
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