Kaohsiung hospital dengue cluster linked to imported case: CDC

Taipei, June 16 (CNA) Taiwan's Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Tuesday that a dengue fever cluster at Kaohsiung Municipal Min-Sheng Hospital has been confirmed as linked to an imported case from Vietnam.

A localized dengue cluster emerged at Min-Sheng Hospital after five inpatients tested positive for dengue fever on June 12.

At a weekly briefing, the CDC said genetic sequencing showed all infections in the cluster matched an imported case reported earlier this month. As of Monday, the cluster totaled six cases, with no new infections reported.

CDC spokesperson Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) said the imported case was an individual who returned from Vietnam on June 1 after visiting relatives and was detected through airport fever screening before later testing positive by polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

The patient was hospitalized at Min-Sheng hospital from June 1-11 and stayed in a room directly opposite the ward of the later local cases, leading authorities to identify the imported case as the likely source of the cluster.

Tseng said the Kaohsiung health department has since expanded testing to more than 1,400 people at the hospital, including staff, inpatients and those who were recently discharged.

There is currently no evidence of broader community transmission, and monitoring will continue until July 12, she said, stressing that as dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease and is not transmitted from person to person, mosquito prevention remains the most important measure.

According to CDC data, Taiwan has recorded 75 confirmed dengue cases so far this year, including seven locally acquired infections, all in Kaohsiung. The remaining 68 cases were imported, primarily from Southeast and South Asia.

The CDC urged the public to regularly inspect their surroundings and eliminate standing water to prevent mosquitoes from breeding, saying that removing breeding sites is key to reducing the risk of dengue and other mosquito-borne diseases.