The man was a resident of Kaohsiung City in southern Taiwan. His death marks the second time in two weeks that someone in southern Taiwan has died from dengue fever.
The previous fatality involved a resident of Pingtung, located not far from Kaohsiung City.
With 481 cases of dengue fever, all contracted locally, Kaohsiung City has had more cases of the disease than any other region in Taiwan. Of the 481 cases, seven involved the more severe strain of dengue hemorrhagic fever.
All eleven districts in Kaohsiung have now had cases of dengue fever. Just as in 2002 and 2006, when there was an outbreak of dengue fever, the southern parts of Kaohsiung have been hit particularly hard by the mosquito-borne illness.
All four serotypes of dengue fever have appeared recently, increasing the chances of cross-infection, which occurs when patients have been exposed to more than one of the four serotypes.
When there is cross-infection, dengue fever can easily turn into dengue hemorrhagic fever.
The 67-year-old fatality had high-blood pressure and diabetes and other chronic illnesses. He had been exposed to the first type of dengue fever in 1988, according to Chen Chao-dong, an official with the Center for Disease Control under the Kaohsiung City Health Department
The patient contracted the third type of dengue virus this year, and he died from dengue hemorrhagic fever resulting from cross-infection, Chen said.
The man’s family has not been infected, the official added.
Though the man died on Dec. 4, his death was not made public until Dec. 6. Asked to explain the delay, Ho Chi-kung, director-general of the DOH under the Kaohsiung City Government, said that as the nation was engrossed with the Dec. 5 elections, his department decided to postpone announcing his death.
“Now that the elections are over, people will pay more attention to the announcement,” Ho said.
Chen similarly said that the news was withheld because of the recent elections, though he gave a somewhat different explanation.
“Dengue fever is too sensitive a topic. We did not want this news used for political purposes,” he said. (HZW)