On September 25, 2017, the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC) announced one new dengue-associated death in an imported case.　The case is an over-30-year-old female who resides in northern Taiwan. At the end of August, she visited Vietnam. In early September, she subsequently developed fever, fatigue, headache, muscle ache, joint paint and retroortbital pain. After seeking medical attention, she was hospitalized. Infection with dengue was confirmed in the case after the hospital reported her to the health authority as a suspected case.

During her stay in the hospital, she continued to experience dizziness, shortness of breath and chest tightness. Despite the treatment administered, the case unfortunately passed away during mid-September. The investigation revealed the cause of death was associated with dengue infection. As of now, none of the 20 contacts has experienced any symptoms. To prevent the further spread of the disease, the local health authority has implemented various prevention measures, including cleaning of vector breeding sites, investigating the mosquito population density around the places the cases frequent, and providing the public with relevant health education.

According to the surveillance data compiled by Taiwan CDC, during September 18 and 24, 2017, 4 new imported dengue cases and 1 dengue-associated death in an imported case from Vietnam were confirmed. During the past one month, the majority of the imported cases confirmed came from Vietnam. As of September 24, 2017, a total of 229 imported cases, including 2 deaths, and 3 indigenous cases have been confirmed in Taiwan so far this year.

As the vector mosquito season has arrived, Taiwan CDC reminds travelers planning to visit areas affected by dengue fever such as Southeast Asian countries to take precautions against mosquito bites, including wearing light-colored clothing, long sleeves and long pants, applying officially approved mosquito repellent to exposed parts of the body, staying at accommodations installed with window screens, screen doors or air conditioners. If symptoms such as fever, headache, retroorbital pain, myalgia, arthralgia, and rash develop after their return, please seek immediate medical attention and inform the physician of their travel activity history in order to facilitate early diagnosis, case reporting and treatment.

Healthcare providers are urged to heighten vigilance for suspected cases, inquire their travel history, occupation, exposure history and the possibility of potential clusters, as well as reinforce case reporting in order to facilitate subsequent implementation of prevention measures. 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).