According to statistics compiled by the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC), 2487 cases of notifiable infectious diseases were confirmed among patients who had illness onset (the number of chronic disease cases estimated and included in the statistics was based on the day of diagnosis) in August, 2008. During the same period in 2007, 2720 cases of notifiable infectious diseases were confirmed among patients who had illness onset (the number of chronic disease cases estimated and included in the statistics was based on the day of diagnosis) with an infectious disease.
None of the 2487 cases confirmed in August this year was infected with a Category 1 or Category 5 notifiable infectious disease. On the other hand, 164 cases were confirmed with a Category 2 notifiable infectious disease. Further, the majority of the cases, 127 out of 164, were infected with dengue fever, followed by 13 cases of hepatitis A, and 7 cases of shigellosis. In addition, 2033 cases were infected with a Category 3 disease and 1273 out of the 2033 cases were infected with tuberculosis, constituting the highest case number in this category, followed by 570 cases of syphilis, and 148 cases of gonorrhea. Moreover, 76 cases were infected with a Category 4 disease, and 37 out of the 76 cases were infected with invasive pneumococcal disease, constituting the highest case number in this category, followed by 28 cases of scrub typhus, and 5 cases of leptospirosis. Furthermore, 144 cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and 70 cases of AIDS were confirmed.
In August, 55 confirmed cases of infectious diseases were imported. Dengue fever infection was the most common with a case number of 37, followed by 5 cases of hepatitis A, 5 cases of shigellosis, 4 cases of amoebiasis, and so on.
When compared to the average case numbers for the month of August in the previous three years, the average case numbers of the following diseases exceeded the average values from the previous three years: legionellosis (Category 4), enteroviruses infection with severe complications (Category 2), meningococcal meningitis (Category 2), etc.