Enterovirus, diarrhea cases set to peak after Mid-Autumn Festival: CDC

Taipei, Aug. 27 (CNA) Rising enterovirus and diarrhea cases in Taiwan are expected to peak after the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Tuesday.

The current enterovirus outbreak in Taiwan is not only on the rise but also in the epidemic phase, with a total of 13,701 individuals infected with enterovirus visiting emergency and outpatient departments from Aug. 18-24, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Kuo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) told a news conference.

The number of reported cases last week -- the second highest for the same period in the past decade -- marked a 5.8 percent increase compared to the previous week, continuing an upward trend since the week of Aug. 4-10, according to CDC data.

CDC Deputy Director-General Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞) said that this year's number of enterovirus cases began rising during the summer vacation, earlier than in previous years when the number of cases typically hit a low during the summer vacation and resurfaced with a small increase after the academic year began.

The number of cases is expected to continue rising during the period from the start of the academic year (Aug. 30) until the Mid-Autumn Festival (Sept. 17), with the possibility of reaching a peak after the holiday and followed by a potential decline, Lo said.

The number of patients with diarrhea has also been on the rise for four consecutive weeks, Kuo said, adding that there were a total of 125,895 outpatient and emergency visits due to diarrhea last week, marking a 3.27 percent increase compared to the 121,905 visits from the previous week.

Lo said that the number of diarrhea cases typically peaks after the Mid-Autumn Festival as many members of the public will gather for a barbecue around that time, "it [diarrhea] is usually caused by the consumption of undercooked food or contaminated seafood."

Meanwhile, the CDC also announced that six new local cases of melioidosis were reported last week, along with one new local case of mpox.

That mpox case was infected with the clade IIb virus strain, which differs from the clade Ib strain currently widespread in Africa, where it prompted the World Health Organization to declare the outbreak on the continent a public health emergency of international concern, according to the CDC.