On August 29, 2017, the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC) announced this year’s first dengue-associated death in an imported case. The case is a 70-something male who resides in northern Taiwan. During mid-July, he traveled to Thailand on a business trip. In early August, he developed fever. On the following day, he sought medical attention at a local hospital in Thailand and was hospitalized. Three days later, he developed rash on his limbs and unconsciousness, and was diagnosed with dengue infection by the local hospital. In mid-August, the patient was transported back to Taiwan by the air ambulance. He was immediately rushed to the hospital for further treatment and was reported to the health authority as a dengue case. Despite the administration of emergency treatment by the hospital that received him in Taiwan, the case unfortunately passed away four days later. As of now, none of his 3 contacts (family members) has experienced any symptoms.

According to the surveillance data compiled by Taiwan CDC, during August 21 and 27, 2017, 12 new imported dengue cases and 1 dengue-associated death in an imported case from Thailand were confirmed. During the past one month, the majority of the imported cases confirmed came from Vietnam. As of August 27, 2017, a total of 201 imported cases, including 1 death, and 3 indigenous cases have been confirmed in Taiwan so far this year. 2 new dengue clusters due to business and religious travels have been confirmed. Both clusters originated in Vietnam. Since July 2017, 7 dengue clusters of 18 imported cases have been confirmed in Taiwan.

Recently, the overall level of dengue activity in some countries in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka, has either been on the rise or above average. Thus far this year, Vietnam (>90,000 cases), Sri Lanka (>140,000 cases), and Laos (>5,700) have all reported a higher number of cases this year compared to the same period last year. Specifically, Vietnam has an additional 48% increase in the case number. 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 and activity history in order to facilitate early diagnosis, case reporting and treatment.

As parts of Taiwan have recently experienced thundershowers in the afternoon and intermittent rains, containers that collect standing waters tend to accumulate in the environment under such circumstances, which facilitate the growth of vector mosquitoes. Hence, the public is urged to heighten vigilance and clean and remove any containers that collect standing waters in order to lower the mosquito population density and the risk of local dengue outbreaks, ensuring the health of everyone. Healthcare providers are urged to heighten vigilance for suspected cases and 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).