An Indigenous Outbreak of Dengue Fever at Shilin District of Taipei City in 2011

Wei-Ling Pan, Pi-Fei Tsai, Tzu-June Chen, Hwan-Feng Wang, Yu-Fang Tsai,Wan-Ching Chen, Wan-Chin Chen, Ming-Chih Liu

2013 Vol.29 NO.11

Correspondence Author： Wei-Ling Pan

Abstract：

       A medical center in North Taiwan reported a suspected case of dengue fever (DF) on September 8, 2011, affecting a 42-year-old man who lived on Yangde Boulevard, Shilin District, Taipei City. The case was tested positive by laboratory of Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC) on September 9, and was confirmed as an indigenous case since he had no recent travel history abroad. The health authorities then expanded blood sampling in the case’s residential area, and continuously detected a total of five positive cases. Subsequently, a branch of Taipei City Hospital reported another suspected case on September 30 in a 46-year-old woman. There was geographical correlation between her activity area and the locality of this outbreak that revealed the outbreak was spreading. As of October 26, 20 positive cases had been identified, marking the most serious outbreak of indigenous DF in Taipei Region for the past two years. Presumably, it might be related to geographic environment (mountainous areas), and a lack of awareness and protective knowledge of the disease for public and the medical institutes. After Taiwan CDC in conjunction with the local government urgently mobilized the resources and took a comprehensive prevention and control measures, including removing the vector breeding sources, container reduction, reorganizing the environment, health education, fumigation, and strengthening medical institutes in reporting and diagnosis, the epidemic wave had reversed to a downtrend since late October.