Published Date: 1998-06-01 23:50:00
Subject: PRO/EDR> Enterovirus 71 epidemic, children - Taiwan
Archive Number: 19980601.1047

ENTEROVIRUS 71 EPIDEMIC, CHILDREN - TAIWAN
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A ProMED-mail post
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See Also

Viral myocarditis, research - Malaysia 980316225204
Viral myocarditis - Malaysia 980318224307
Viral myocarditis - Malaysia: correction 980319212559
Viral myocarditis - Malaysia (Sarawak)(11): Entero 71 970615093300
Encephalitis, enterovirus 71 - Malaysia 970828212829
Encephalitis, enterovirus 71 - Malaysia (02) 971020235540
Viral myocarditis - Malaysia (Sarawak), end 970808140442
Viral myocarditis - Malaysia (Sarawak), end (02) 970813122745
Viral myocarditis - Malaysia (Sarawak), end (03) 970813152947

Date: Sun, 31 May 1998 11:40:13 +0800
From: Kenneth Lam Sai Kit <lamsk@medicine.med.um.edu.my>
Source: Newspaper, The Star, Malaysia, Sunday, 31 May 1998.

[I have been contacted about this outbreak and have offered our experiences
to Taiwan - KL
Taipei: Taiwanese health officials said yesterday they were setting up a
special team to monitor a mysterious virus that local press reports say has
killed 17 children and is spreading rapidly on the island.
A Department of Health official said it would set up a risk management team
to monitor the epidemic, caused by the enterovirus type 71. "This epidemic
has become a risk, therefore we will set up a risk management team to hold
meetings every day (to monitor the epidemic)," Wang Li-hsing, director of
the health department's communicable disease control bureau, said on state
television.
The united Daily News reported that 17 new-born babies and children had
died of complications caused by the virus recently.
The newspaper yesterday quoted Lee Ching-yun, a paediatrics professor at
National Taiwan University, as predicting that up to 600,000 infants and
children were likely to be infected by the virus, along with its viral
cousin, Coxsackie virus, by autumn.
An outbreak in 1997 killed some 30 toddlers in Sarawak.
--
Kenneth Lam Sai Kit
e-mail: lamsk@medicine.med.um.edu.my
[Readers are referred to the references above for details of the Sarawak
epidemic, which disappeared as mysteriously as it came.
It would be a good move if the Taiwan government were to set up a website
giving day-to-day information on this outbreak, in the same way as the
Sarawak government did for last year's outbreak there - Mod.JW
................................jw/es
--
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