Taiwanese woman bitten by rat becomes 8th case of hantavirus this year

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/09/08
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A woman bitten by a rat in Pingtung County last month has become the eighth hantavirus hemorrhagic fever case in Taiwan this year, setting a new high number of cases in a single year since records began in 2001.

According to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), this year's eighth case of hantavirus is a woman in her 50s who had no recent history of travel abroad and had been mainly staying in her home, where she had seen evidence of a rat infestation. In August, she was bitten by a rat and on Aug. 17 she began to experience a fever, headache, pain in the posterior eye socket, muscle ache, and other symptoms and sought medical treatment that day.

As her condition worsened, she again sought medical treatment on Aug. 19. The hospital then ran a battery of tests for her for diseases, such as dengue fever, Zika, chikungunya, leptospirosis, hantavirus hemorrhagic fever, and scrub typhus.

The tests later revealed that the woman had contracted hantavirus hemorrhagic fever. Presently, she has been discharged from the hospital and her family members have not presented any suspected symptoms of the disease.    [FULL  STORY]