Want China Times
Date: 2015-08-28
By: CNA

A rehabilitation center and a temporary care home for the hundreds of survivors of a

deadly June 27 flash fire at a New Taipei water park opened in the city Wednesday.

The center was established jointly by the city government and the Sunshine Social Welfare Foundation to provide long-term care and treatment to the nearly 500 people who survived the fire, which killed 11 people.

The victims suffered different degrees of burns when a colored corn starch powder exploded during a party at Formosa Fun Coast Water Park in June, said New Taipei Deputy Mayor Hou Yu-ih.

Over the past weeks, 260 of the surviving burn patients have been discharged from hospital and are in rehabilitation, Hou said at the press briefing at the center’s opening, which was attended by family members of the victims.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-08-27
By: Ko Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Tainan Mayor William Lai is still mulling over using sea water to combat the dengue fever

epidemic that is fast spewing out of control, as the number of patients suffering from the disease this year has reached 2,000, reports said Thursday.

For now, Lai said it is considering using other conventional methods to fight off the outbreak.

In an effort to eliminate the Aedes mosquito in dengue-stricken Kaohsiung last year, health officials attempted to kill mosquito larvae by flooding drainage systems in two dengue fever-affected wards with sea water.

According to health authorities, mosquito larvae soaked in sea water with an average salinity of over 30 practical salinity units (PSU) for 12 hours will die.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-08-27
By: CNA

Travelers to the Middle East should be on the alert as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome

(MERS) has been escalating in the region, Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Wednesday.

The disease is concentrated mainly in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, where around 100 MERS cases had been reported as of late July, the CDC said.

The risk of contracting MERS may increase due to a surge of visitors for the Hajj, the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca that will take place Sept. 20-25, attracting over 3 million pilgrims from around the world, the CDC said.

People visiting Saudi Arabia and other MERS hotspots, namely the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Iran, Oman and Qatar, should exercise caution, the agency said.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/08/27
By: Chen Wei-ting and Hu Xiangjie

Taipei, Aug. 27 (CNA) Taiwan on Thursday reported its first case of Brucellosis since 2011, saying that the patient, a 35-year-old caregiver from Indonesia, is believed to have contracted the bacterial disease abroad.

The woman was hospitalized on Aug. 3 after she developed a fever and backache, and was diagnosed with Brucellosis, a bacterial infection usually transmitted from animals to people, most often via unpasteurized dairy products, according to Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

None of the people whom the woman came in contact have shown signs of the disease, the CDC said.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-08-18
By: Ko Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Another factory complex was caught dumping untreated wastewater into a stream in

Taoyuan after complaint was filed by a local resident who informed authorities of the occurrence, reports said Tuesday.

According to Taoyuan’s Environmental Protection Bureau, it received an anonymous call in the morning saying the Pusin River by the city’s Wen-Chung Road had turned light purple.

Taoyuan City Councilor Wang Hao-yu was also informed of the incident, who said he learned the news by the same informer who had left a picture of the tainted river on his Facebook fan page.

Inspectors who rushed to the scene traced the contaminated river two kilometers south of the city all the way to Zhongli’s Yuandong Road near a railway track, reports said.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/08/18
By: Chang Rong-hsiang and Tung Ning

Taipei, Aug. 18 (CNA) An 87-year-old man in Tainan has died of dengue fever, the

second fatal case recorded in the southern city and in Taiwan this year, the Tainan Department of Health said Tuesday.

It said that since the start of the year, nearly 1,000 cases of dengue fever have been confirmed in Tainan, spread throughout 23 of the city’s 37 districts.

On Aug. 10, the first dengue death of the year was recorded, a 73-year-old man in the city’s South District.

The more recent fatality was a man from the West Central District, who died in hospital on Aug. 12, six days after he developed a fever. He had been suffering from cancer and a chronic lung disease, the health department said.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/08/15
By: Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, Aug. 15 (CNA) The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) urged the public Saturday to pay attention to personal hygiene, as more diarrhea cases could be reported this summer.

During the last four weeks, the number of people seeking treatment for gastrointestinal disorders was 590,986, the CDC said in a statement posted on its web site.

The figure was higher than that recorded during the same period of last year, when 563,574 cases were reported, according to the agency.

The CDC warned especially against infectious diarrhea, most likely caused by norovirus, salmonella and vibrio parahaemolyticus.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/08/13
By: Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, Aug. 13 (CNA) A 73-year-old man in Tainan, southern Taiwan, died of dengue

fever with severe complications, the first death reported in the country so far this summer due to the mosquito-borne disease, health officials said Thursday.

The victim, who had a history of diabetes, high blood pressure and chronic kidney disease, died Aug. 10, three days after developing dengue symptoms, officials said.

Both his wife and son were also infected at around the same time, making three out of four confirmed cases in the neighborhood, said Lin Sheng-che (林聖哲), head of the Tainan City Department of Health.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), as of Aug. 11, there had been 775 indigenous dengue fever cases this year, the highest figure since 2010.     [FULL  STORY]