(CNA file photo)
Taipei, Oct. 14 (CNA) Dengue fever has taken 106 lives nationwide in Taiwan since the start of May, according to the latest updates by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), which also show that most of the deaths were reported in Tainan, southern Taiwan.
Tainan recorded 90 deaths, while 14 were reported in Kaohsiung and two in Pingtung County, all in the southern part of the island, according to the CECC statistics.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) completed a review of 19 suspected deaths this week, and found 17 of them were caused by dengue fever infections, with the age of the dead ranging from 54 to 93, CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said Wednesday.
Most of the deceased patients had suffered from multiple chronic diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney failure and coronary artery diseases before being infected with dengue fever, Chuang said, noting that they were all patients who would be classified as high-risk by the World Health Organization.
Currently, he went on, there are 28 fatalities suspected of being caused by dengue fever nationwide that have yet to be screened, and 47 patients infected with the disease continue to be treated in intensive care units.
The good news is that 21,260 patients have fully recovered, meaning that the recovery rate is 89.2 percent, Chuang said.
The CECC statistics show that the number of dengue fever infections reported in Taiwan has reached 23,821 this year, including 19,621 cases in Tainan, 3,796 in neighboring Kaohsiung and 95 in Pingtung.
On Tuesday alone, the number of new indigenous infection cases reached 365, according to the tallies.
The command center pointed out that the dengue fever outbreak in Tainan has slowed down, with 77 fewer new cases posted on Tuesday than on the same day last week.
The outbreak in Kaohsiung, however, has intensified, it said, noting that there were 151 more new cases recorded Tuesday than on the same day of the previous week.
(By Lung Pei-ning and Elizabeth Hsu)
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