A Tuberculosis Outbreak in a Community, Eastern Taiwan, 2019

DOI: 10.6524/EB.202503_41(6).0002

I-Ping Tai, Wen Wang, Pei-Chin Huang, Ta-Jen Chien

2025 Vol.41 NO.6

Correspondence Author： I-Ping Tai

Abstract：

  Since 2018, the incidence of new tuberculosis cases in Village A of eastern Taiwan had been increasing, with most cases concentrated in “Community a”. By 2019, 5 cases were confirmed. A case discussion meeting was held in the local health center to address the abnormal increase. It was discovered that Cases 3 and 4 were epidemiologically linked, and both cases had been infected by genotype C00320. Tracing back revealed four people in “Community a” were infected with the same genotype. Most cases had not participated in community chest X-ray screenings and were highly infectious.
  Therefore, the County Health Bureau convened an expert meeting to formulate prevention and control strategies to control this outbreak. Meanwhile, genotypes of tuberculosis cases in neighboring villages over the three years past were compared to determine the scale of the outbreak. Because the local health center was nearly burnt out due to the COVID-19 response and the latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) project, they were struggling to implement regular tuberculosis prevention and control measures. In response, the Eastern Regional Center of the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control and the County Health Bureau worked together to assist the local health center in devising tuberculosis control strategies to ensure the health rights and interests of indigenous community residents.
  Through the collaboration between the central and local governments, the outbreak ended in September 2021. As of the first half of 2023, “Community a” had not diagnosed tuberculosis cases of the same genotype.