TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The medical community in Taiwan is sounding the alarm on enteroviruses amid a spike in cases, with young children at particularly high risk.
The country recorded 890 cases between Jan. 22-28, down from the previous week with 2,019 infections, but it was due to the limited clinical services during the Lunar New Year holiday. Last week the emergency departments added 134 cases, up 74% from a week earlier, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
An epidemic of the virus among schoolchildren could be on the horizon, warned Hsieh Tsung-hseuh (謝宗學), a pediatric emergency medicine physician at the Chung Shan Medical University Hospital. He advised the adoption of measures including class suspension and quarantine in the event of an outbreak as the winter break is about to end soon.
The fact that the more than 400,000 Taiwanese newborns during the past three years have largely not been exposed to enteroviruses thanks to COVID-19 prevention is worrying, he said. With restrictions being removed, a surge in cases can be anticipated in youngsters, he said in a Facebook post.
The CDC on Jan. 16 said the country recorded its first death from the virus in two years, a girl aged five months. She had developed symptoms of coughing and excessive mucus in December before being identified as a severe enterovirus-D68 infection on Jan. 6 and passed away on Jan. 12.
Adimmune and its subsidiary Enimmune have jointly developed a vaccine targeting the strain A71, the first homegrown enterovirus vaccine. The vaccine was approved last month but will not be rolled out until later in the first quarter.
