On March 31, 2016, the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC) announced this year’s first case of enterovirus infection with severe complications in a 2-year-and-6-month-old boy who resides in central Taiwan. On March 23, he sought medical attention at a clinic after developing a fever and the doctor immediately diagnosed enterovirus infection in the case. Subsequently, on March 26, when the case developed muscle twitch in legs, lethargy and loss of appetite, he sought further treatment at a hospital and was then hospitalized. On the following day, he developed change of consciousness and was transferred to the intensive care unit (ICU). After the hospital collected specimens from the case for laboratory testing and reported the case to the health authority as a suspected case, infection with EV71 was confirmed in the case on March 31. Currently, the case is still hospitalized.

According to the epidemiological investigation, none of the family members residing in the same household has developed suspected symptoms. However, his 5-year-old cousin contracted enterovirus infection on March 19, and visited the case at home and stayed there for about 30 minutes to 1 hour. In addition, two children at the cousin’s kindergarten, including the cousin, have recently contracted enterovirus. The health authority has reinforced enterovirus-related health education among the affected families and taught them ways to disinfect their environment. Additionally, the health authority has also visited the cousin’s kindergarten to conduct an enterovirus-related health education session and share relevant prevention methods.

According to the surveillance data compiled by Taiwan CDC, thus far this year, 5 cases of EV71 infection, including 4 mild cases and 1 severe case, have been confirmed.
Last year, 6 severe cases of enterovirus infection have been confirmed, including 3 caused by CB 5 virus, 2 caused by CA 16 virus and 1 caused by echovirus 3. Among those cases, two died.　

Taiwan CDC stresses that enterovirus is highly contagious and infants and children aged below 5 are at increased risk of developing enterovirus infection with severe complications. Therefore, Taiwan CDC advises the public and child care institutions to clean and disinfect the environment and toys and objects children play with regularly, report cases accordingly, and implement class suspension according to the local health authority regulations when a cluster occurs 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.

In light of the possibility of an EV-71 outbreak in Taiwan this year, Taiwan CDC has established a response work team and designated 76 hospitals in the nation as the Treatment Center for Patients of Enterovirus Infection with Severe Complications. Taiwan CDC urges parents to pay close attention to the symptoms of the child diagnosed with enterovirus infection, if the sick child develops suspected symptoms such as drowsiness, disturbed consciousness, inactivity, flaccid paralysis, myoclonic jerk, continuous vomiting, tachypnea, and tachycardia, please take the child to a large hospital for medical attention immediately in order to ensure prompt treatment. For more information, please visit the Taiwan CDC website at http://www.cdc.gov.tw or call the toll-free Communicable Disease Reporting and Consultation Hotline, 1922 (or 0800-001922).