Taiwan has already entered the enterovirus season, with the peak of the epidemic expected in mid to late June, the Centers for Disease Control announced May 4.
As the season has arrived early this year, the public must take all necessary precautions, the CDC said.
Deputy CDC Director-General Lin Ting said according to the CDC’s survey of doctors, the ratio of patients with enterovirus has gone up rapidly for four weeks straight. Last week 6.66 people out of every 1,000 seeking emergency medical treatment nationwide were suffering from enterovirus, surpassing the alert level.
Conditions were most serious in central Taiwan, where 8.61 of every 1,000 emergency room patients had enterovirus, followed by eastern Taiwan. The situation in the Taipei area is also very serious.
Lin said although there have been only seven severe cases to date this year, fewer than the 15 recorded by this time last year, all of the cases involve enterovirus type 71, which is more likely to bring on critical symptoms and death. Mild bouts of the disease are also more widespread than last year and the season has begun earlier.
In neighboring countries such as mainland China and Japan enterovirus is also on the upswing, with more than 250,000 cases reported in the mainland so far this year and 144 deaths. In Japan recently 1,673 cases were reported in one week, a record in the last eleven years.
To gain insight into the public’s knowledge of enterovirus, the CDC surveyed over 1,000 caregivers of children under the age of 5. While 90 percent of respondents had a proper understanding of enterovirus prevention and disease vectors, only 75 percent realized that children under 5 are a high-risk group. Ninety percent were aware of the importance of hand washing in preventing enterovirus, but only 65 percent followed the proper steps for hand washing. (THN)