As enterovirus activity continues to peak, the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC) warns that enterovirus is highly contagious, especially in crowded places such as households and child care facilities. Since schools of all levels have started a new school year, increased interaction among schoolchildren will likely increase the transmission of enterovirus both at home and at school. Hence, Taiwan CDC advises childcare center personnel, parents, and schoolchildren to pay attention to personal hygiene and wash hands frequently to effectively decrease the chance of enterovirus infection. Both adults and children are urged to develop good personal hygiene habits, including seeking medical attention immediately when sick, resting at home when sick, and avoiding contact with infants and young children when sick in order to reduce the risk of disease transmission and risk of developing complications and ensure prompt recovery.

During the past 4 weeks, the numbers of people seeking healthcare for enterovirus infection respectively are 10,334, 10,086, 10,200, and 9,850. The ER consultation rate for enterovirus infection during Week 35 was 5.27‰, which is about 10% higher than that during the previous week: 4.75‰. Thus far this year, four severe cases of enterovirus infection have been confirmed, including two caused by CB 5 virus and two caused by CA 16 virus. Among the severe cases, two died. One died from infection with CB virus and one died from infection with CA 16 virus. Coxsackie A 16 virus is currently the dominant strain circulating in the community.

Preschool children are at increased risk for enterovirus infection with severe complications and most infected individuals develop no symptoms or influenza-like symptoms. Infected adults develop even milder symptoms. As a result, enterovirus infection is hard to detect and harder to prevent. Therefore, Taiwan CDC advises the public to clean and disinfect the environment and toys and objects children play with regularly and educate children the importance of cleanliness in maintaining health in order to prevent disease transmission. In addition, when a child in a household is diagnosed with enterovirus infection, parents and child caregivers are urged to refrain the sick child from close contact with other children to prevent further spread of the disease and pay close attention to the symptoms of the sick child.

When diagnosing patients with enterovirus infection, physicians are reminded to watch for the development of suspected symptoms such as persistent fever, drowsiness, disturbed consciousness, inactivity, flaccid paralysis, myoclonic jerk, continuous vomiting, tachypnea, and tachycardia. If the aforementioned symptoms have developed, please refer the patient to a large hospital immediately in order to ensure prompt treatment. For more information, please visit the Taiwan CDC’s website at http://www.cdc.gov.tw or call the toll-free Communicable Disease Reporting and Care Hotline, 1922 (or 0800-001922).