Tainan City tops 12,000 dengue cases as Taiwan heads toward record season
With the addition of some 600 new locally acquired dengue fever cases Monday, the Taiwanese southern city of Tainan has eclipsed the 12,000 case mark, now standing at 12,066.
The grand total number of cases on the island is 13,871 as the 2015 tally barrels closer to besting last year’s dengue record season of 15,732, the highest total since 1981 when formal recording of dengue began in Taiwan.
Last year, the bulk of cases, 96 percent, were reported from Kaohsiung.
The combination of Tainan and another southern city of Kaohsiung accounts for more than 98 percent of all cases reported this year.
Dengue fever is an infectious disease carried by mosquitoes and caused by any of four related dengue viruses. This disease was once called called “break-bone fever” because it sometimes causes severe joint and muscle pain that feels like bones are breaking.
Image/CDC
Dengue fever of multiple types is found in most countries of the tropics and subtropics particularly during and after rainy season.
There are four types of dengue virus: DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3 and DEN-4.
People get the dengue virus from the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito. It is not contagious from person to person.
There are three types of dengue fever in order of less severe to most: the typical uncomplicated dengue fever, dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHS) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS).
Robert Herriman is a microbiologist and the Editor-in-Chief of Outbreak News Today and the Executive Editor of The Global Dispatch
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