To more effectively assist local governments in bringing the ongoing dengue outbreaks under control and assist the coordination of dengue prevention and control efforts, the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC) Director-General Dr. Steve Hsu-Sung Kuo began to station in southern Taiwan on September 7, 2015. Simultaneously, Taiwan CDC established a forward command post to support the local governments in battling the ongoing dengue outbreaks.

The purposes of establishing the forward command post are to help the central government in obtaining real-time information concerning the outbreaks in southern Taiwan and provide local governments real-time outbreak and disease surveillance, technical guidance on case management and infection prevention and control, and enhance central-local vertical co-ordination.

Last week, the Executive Yuan decided to allocate NT$ 42 million of the secondary reserve fund to support the dengue prevention and control efforts in Tainan City to cover costs for additional personnel, environmental disinfectant and others. In addition, the Medical Support Team from Taiwan CDC will offer the latest information on dengue prevention and control and the Central Rapid Diagnostic Test Coordination Group will coordinate the mobilization of dengue rapid diagnostic test kits in order to stop further transmission of the disease as soon as possible.

Through enhanced, concerted efforts, the central and local governments hope to reverse the outbreak by the end of September. However, according to the statistics compiled by the Central Weather Bureau (CWB), the total amount of rainfall in Tainan City during August reached 629 mm, which is much higher than the average amount during the same period in 1981 and 2010, which is 395.1 mm. The weather factor is unfavorable to the implementation of dengue prevention and control efforts.  

Taiwan CDC once again stresses that everyone needs to participate in dengue prevention and control efforts in order to successfully contain the outbreaks and urges the public to stay vigilant against dengue fever and take necessary measures such as draining water containers and cleaning up vector breeding sites around their residences as well as preventing mosquito bites to effectively prevent the spread of dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever and protect their health and the health of their family.