Taiwan up to 163 local dengue fever cases this year

Taipei, May 1 (CNA) One new indigenous case of dengue fever was confirmed in Taiwan over the past week, bringing the total number to 163 as of April 29, the most to this point in the year since 2016, Taiwan's Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported Tuesday.

Eleven new cases of dengue fever were recorded in the week of April 23-29, but 10 of them were imported, CDC Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said at a news briefing.

Seven of them involved people who were infected in Indonesia, two who were infected in the Maldives, and one who was infected in Thailand, Lee said.

The one indigenous case involved a woman in her 20s living in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, Lee said.

Of the 163 confirmed domestic dengue fever cases reported this year to date, 134 cases were in Kaohsiung, 19 were in Tainan, nine were in Pingtung County, and one was in Chiayi County. Only two of the cases were severe, according to CDC statistics.

A total of 70 imported cases have been recorded so far this year, the highest for the same period since 2020, with 33 cases originating in Indonesia and 16 in Malaysia.

CDC spokesperson Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑惠) said the recent rainfall has provided plenty of breeding sites for mosquitoes, and monitoring data shows that the concentration of mosquitoes capable of carrying the disease has risen in southern Taiwan in recent weeks.

She urged people to remove stagnant water containers and take mosquito prevention measures to reduce the risk of the disease spreading.