According to statistics compiled by the Centers for Disease Control in Taiwan (Taiwan CDC), 2093 cases of notifiable infectious diseases were confirmed among patients who had illness onset in January, 2008.During the same period in 2007, 2277 cases of notifiable infectious diseases were confirmed among patients who had illness onset with an infectious disease.
None of the 2093 cases confirmed in January this year was infected with a Category 1 or Category 5 notifiable infectious disease.On the other hand, 79 cases were confirmed with a Category 2 notifiable infectious disease, which accounted for 3.77% of the total confirmed cases. Further, the majority of the cases, 24 out of 62, were infected with dengue fever, followed by 23 cases of acute viral hepatitis, and 18 cases of amoebiasis.In addition, 1668 cases were infected with a Category 3 disease, which accounted for 79.69% of the total confirmed cases, and 1053 out of the 1674 cases were infected with tuberculosis, constituting the highest case number in this category, followed by 445 cases of syphilis, and 139 cases of gonorrhea.Moreover, 129 cases were infected with a Category 4 disease, which accounted for 6.16% of the total confirmed cases, and 81 out of the 129 cases were infected with invasive pneumococcal disease, constituting the highest case number in this category, followed by 39 cases of scrub typhus, and 5 cases of influenza severe.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, 134 cases of HIV infection were confirmed.
In January, 17 confirmed cases of infectious diseases were imported, amoebiasis infection was the most common with a case number of 6 (5 from Indonesia, and 1 from Vietnam), followed by 5 cases of dengue fever (2 from Indonesia, 2 from the Philippines and 1 from Vietnam), 2 cases of shigellosis (1 from Cambodia, and 1 from India), 2 case of typhoid fever (both from Indonesia), 2 cases of malaria (1 from Malawi, and 1 from South Africa).
When compared to the average case numbers for the month of January in the previous three years, the average case numbers of the following diseases exceeded the average values from the previous three years: amoebiasis, enteroviruses infection complicated severe case, acute viral hepatitis type A, malaria, dengue fever, scrub typhus, invasive pneumococcal disease, leptospirosis, syphilis and gonorrhea.