Actions Taken to Prevent Dengue Fever during

Jhy-Wen Wu

2008 Vol.24 NO.8

Correspondence Author: Jhy-Wen Wu

Abstract:

The first localized outbreak of dengue fever in the summer of 2007 occurred in the Annan district of Tainan City. The virus then spread to the city’s northern and eastern districts. As host of the 2007 National Games from 20 - 25 October, Tainan was getting ready to welcome up to 15,000 athletes and staff members. To protect visitors against infection, and to avoid further spread of the disease when they returned to their home cities, the Executive Yuan set up a National Games Dengue Fever Prevention Task Force. This was made up of associated departments of the central government and local city councils. The mission of the Task Force was to help the Tainan City Government take the necessary steps to prevent dengue fever. These steps included continuous eradication and monitoring of larval and adult mosquitoes. The Task Force also supplied athletes and staff with repellent, as well as brochures to educate them about self-protection. From 16 October 2007, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) sent a commander and 41 disease controllers to live onsite and administer dengue fever prevention tasks and monitor the health of staff and athletes. As part of the onsite monitoring process, they also captured mosquitoes and tested them for the dengue virus. Thanks to the cooperation of all those involved, none of the athletes, staff and judges were infected with dengue fever. It was ‘mission accomplished’.
Keywords:dengue fever, games, vectors breeding sources, surveillance