Tainan City confirmed a new case of local dengue fever on June 12: a female in her 40s from Chenggong Village in Rende District tested positive for dengue virus type 1. Close contacts living with her have not displayed symptoms so far. Since the patient has no recent overseas travel history, the risk of community infection is relatively high. Furthermore, recent rain showers have created ideal breeding environments for vector mosquitoes, making it more difficult to control the spread of the disease. Tainan City Mayor Huang Wei-che said that city government health officials have already cleaned and sanitized the area. He also urged residents to be more alert and get rid of containers holding stagnant water to eliminate vector breeding spots as soon as possible.
The city’s Public Health Bureau expressed that only by clearing out breeding sites can the city successfully avoid a dengue fever epidemic. According to Article 25 of the Communicable Disease Control Act, all owners, managers, or users of public and private spaces should voluntarily clean up vector breeding sites - check the area, get rid of stagnant water, throw out excessive containers, and scrub containers clean to eliminate mosquito eggs. If Dengue Prevention and Control Center inspectors discover dengue vector larvae and breeding sites, owners of the spaces will be fined immediately.
The Public Health Bureau also reminded hospitals and medical care facilities in Tainan to conduct dengue NS1 rapid screening if they have patients who show any suspected symptoms such as fever, headache, pain behind the eyes, rashes, or muscle/joint/bone pain; or the patient has recently traveled to dengue-endemic areas (Southeast Asia, South Asia, Taiwan). The Bureau and relevant agencies can then launch epidemic prevention measures without delay to contain the local spread of the disease. For more information, please visit the Tainan City Government Dengue Prevention and Control Center website http://bit.ly/3xHfuzL or call the epidemic prevention hotline (06-3366366).