An Outbreak of Shigellosis Infection within Three Tourism Groups during Traveling in Boracay, the Philippines, 2012

Mei-Lan Hung, Yu-Wen Chen, Hsiao-Ping Tung, Hwan-Feng Wang

2012 Vol.28 NO.19

Correspondence Author： Mei-Lan Hung

Abstract：

Transmission of infectious diseases internationally has become an important global public health issue because of frequent international business and travel activities. At the airport fever screening station, the Second Branch of Taiwan CDC detected three persons, one each from three tourism groups returning from Boracay, the Philippines, with symptoms of fever and diarrhea during June 22 to 24. The three members were diagnosed as Shigellosis after anal swab test on June 28 by the Research and Diagnostics Center. Then Taiwan CDC instantly directed the local health units to implement the outbreak investigation, health education on related diseases, and guidance of environmental disinfection. In the meantime, the list of the positive cases’ family and tourist groups was transferred to the local health units for contact tracing and health investigation. The tracing results from 86 contacts showed twenty contacts were with suspect symptoms, and specimen testing from contacts detected one positive Shigellosis case. The risk of transmitting infectious disease is high in Taiwan due to the high population density. However, the effective control measures, rapid obtaining information of imported infectious disease, continuous surveillance, and implementation of relevant prevention strategy, may decrease the risk of domestic dissemination.