According to the surveillance data compiled by the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC), every year, the occurrence of local outbreaks of dengue fever in Taiwan has been a result of imported cases.As of August 30, 2010, a total of 379 cases of infectious diseases such as dengue fever, amoebiasis and shigellosis have been imported from countries mostly in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand.Therefore, Taiwan CDC advises travelers to stay alert and be aware of international outbreaks and visit the outpatient travel clinics at 11 contracted hospitals in the nation to receive consultation services for groups or individuals, vaccination and prophylaxis in order to ensure their health and prevent the spread of diseases.

As international outbreaks change rapidly, people planning to travel abroad can visit the Taiwan CDC’s website: http://www.cdc.gov.tw for the latest information on international epidemics and travel health information.Health education pamphlets are also available on the website for downloads.

On the other hand, to ensure the health of the people in Taiwan, Taiwan CDC has also adopted a more aggressive and proactive approach to promote travel health.Taiwan CDC has been conducting travel medicine training sessions for people working in tourism.Two training sessions for tour guides were conducted earlier in May and June this year. Four more training sessions will be held in September and October.People working in tourism are encouraged to participate in these sessions to learn more about travel medicine and be able to take appropriate measures that decrease the risk of spreading infectious diseases during traveling and ensure the health of tour group members.For more information about registering for the training session, please visit: http://travelmedicine.org.tw/ .

To prevent the importation of infectious diseases, Taiwan CDC has established a network of multiple disease surveillance systems.At arrival ports in Taiwan, fever screening stations have successfully detected several imported cases of infectious diseases.Nevertheless, some cases escaped detection till community outbreaks occurred.To better improve health inspection and quarantine in Taiwan, Taiwan CDC has planned to conduct a trial implementation of “Self-Health Management for Arriving Passengers without Symptoms of Infectious Diseases” targeting travelers returning from areas at increased risks for infectious diseases such as Africa, China and Southeast Asia.Travelers returning from high risk areas for infectious diseases can request for “Self-Health Pack” from the airport quarantine personnel.Travelers are advised to seek medical attention when they develop suspected symptoms of infectious diseases within 15 days of their return.To encourage travelers to seek prompt medical help when experiencing infectious symptoms, when they voluntarily present the completed “Self-Health Management Form”, which is included in the “Self-Health Pack”, to the doctor to help diagnosing if a case is imported, they can have the doctor or the hospital/clinic stamped and certified the form and mail the certified form to Taiwan CDC for a souvenir, a copy of a pocket guide to travel medicine.

People planning to travel overseas are encouraged to visit the Taiwan CDC’s website: http://www.cdc.gov.tw/ or call the toll-free Communicable Disease Reporting and Consultation Hotline, 1922, for information on international epidemics and infectious diseases.Tour guides are urged to keep an eye on the health of their tour group members, assist a tour group member in seeking medical attention when the member falls sick, and report a sick member to the airport quarantine personnel upon returning to Taiwan in order to effectively prevent the importation of infectious diseases.