Imported dengue fever reported in one family

Chou Chih-hao, deputy director of the DOH’s Centers for Disease Control, said the patients were four children born to a Tongese mother who was married to a Taiwanese man living in Taipei County.

Chou said the mother took her four children to visit Tonga, a South Pacific island nation near New Zealand, and brought the children back to Taiwan on March 24. Her 4-year-old son was detected to have a fever at the airport and was confirmed to have been infected with the mosquito-borne disease.

Taipei County health authorities then took specimens from the mother and her three daughters aged 8, 10, 13. Tests confirmed that the three sisters were also infected, although the mother was not. But “only one sister showed symptoms of fever on March 28, and the two others had no symptoms,” Chou said, adding that all four children recovered after taking medicine.

The centers estimated that there have been 24 imported dengue fever cases so far this year, compared with only 15 imported cases during the same period last year.

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