Taipei City reports first indigenous case of dengue fever for two years

According to the department, a 54-year-old man living in Beitou district was confirmed to have the disease on Aug. 22. He is now in recovery at home, department officials said.

The department does not yet know how the patient, who has not recently traveled out of the country or even Taipei City, was infected with the mosquito-born disease, the officials added.

The department said measures have been taken to prevent an outbreak after it received a report of the infection on Aug. 21.

So far this year, 31 cases of confirmed dengue fever infection were reported in Taipei City, 30 of which were determined to be imported cases, the department said.

Citing data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) under the Department of Health, the officials said dengue fever cases in Taiwan occurred earlier than usual this year due to global warming that led to a suitable climate for mosquito breeding.

According to CDC statistics, the number of recorded indigenous dengue fever cases in the country has risen to 30 since March, mostly in Taiwan's southern areas of Kaohsiung and Tainan.

CDC Deputy Director-General Chou Chih-hao warned that as 18 of the cases were reported last week, it appeared that the outbreak was accelerating.

Recently, temperatures in Taiwan have hovered around 25-30 Celsius degrees. With afternoon showers common in the summer, it is easy for the mosquitoes that can spread dengue fever to reproduce if people allow stagnant water to remain in containers, Chou said.

“Weekly cleaning is necessary to control the outbreak,” he noted.

Dengue fever causes a severe flu-like illness and sometimes leads to a potentially fatal complication called dengue hemorrhagic fever.

The last case of indigenous dengue fever in Taipei City was reported in the summer of 2008.

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