According to statistics compiled by the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC), 2420 cases of notifiable infectious diseases were confirmed among patients who had illness onset in May, 2008. During the same period in 2007, 2567 cases of notifiable infectious diseases were confirmed among patients who had illness onset with an infectious disease.
None of the 2420 cases confirmed in May this year was infected with a Category 1 or Category 5 notifiable infectious disease. On the other hand, 64 cases were confirmed with a Category 2 notifiable infectious disease, which accounted for 2.64% of the total confirmed cases. Further, the majority of the cases, 17 out of 64, were infected with hepatitis A, followed by 11 cases of amoebiasis, and 10 cases of shigellosis. In addition, 2055 cases were infected with a Category 3 disease, which accounted for 84.92% of the total confirmed cases, and 1258 out of the 2055 cases were infected with tuberculosis, constituting the highest case number in this category, followed by 547 cases of syphilis, and 124 cases of gonorrhea. Moreover, 88 cases were infected with a Category 4 disease, which accounted for 3.64% of the total confirmed cases, and 57 out of the 88 cases were infected with invasive pneumococcal disease, constituting the highest case number in this category, followed by 19 cases of scrub typhus, and 6 cases of endemic typhus fever. Furthermore, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection was the most prevalent among the confirmed cases affected by a disease from the category of other designated infectious diseases. More specifically, 157 cases of HIV infection were confirmed.
In May, 31 confirmed cases of infectious diseases were imported. Amoebiasis infection was the most common with a case number of 8 (7 from Indonesia, and 1 from the Philippines), followed by 7 cases of dengue fever (2 from Indonesia, 2 from Thailand, 1 from Malaysia, 1 from the Philippines, and 1 from Vietnam), 7 cases of shigellosis (3 from Cambodia, 1 from Indonesia, 1 from India, 1 from Vietnam, 1 from Sao Tome and Principe), 3 cases of typhoid fever (2 from Indonesia, and 1 from Myanmar), 2 cases of acute hepatitis A (1 from China, and 1 from Australia), 2 cases of acute hepatitis B (both cases with infection of unknown origin), 2 cases of acute hepatitis E (1 from China), 1 case of malaria (1 from Thailand). Between January and May this year, 150 confirmed cases of infectious diseases were imported. The three most common infectious diseases imported during this period were dengue fever, amoebiasis, and shigellosis with case numbers of 43, 35, and 22 respectively.
When compared to the average case numbers for the month of May in the previous three years, the average case numbers of the following diseases exceeded the average values from the previous three years: cholera, shigellosis, amoebiasis, typhoid fever, enteroviruses infection with severe complications, acute flaccid paralysis, dengue fever, endemic typhus fever, invasive pneumococcal disease, syphilis.
When compared to the average case numbers for the months of January through May in the previous three years, the average case numbers of the following diseases exceeded the average values from the previous three years: cholera, shigellosis, amoebiasis, typhoid fever, enteroviruses infection with severe complications, acute hepatitis A, acute flaccid paralysis, botulism, dengue fever, chikungunya fever, scrub typhus, congenital rubella syndrome, meningococcal meningitis, measles, legionellosis, rubella, mumps, invasive pneumococcal disease, syphilis, acute viral hepatitis unspecified, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, leptospirosis, melioidosis and leprosy.