The dengue fever outbreak in Kaohsiung City is reported to be on the decline; however, in just two weeks, the city has seen the tally rise from 10,000 to 15,000 cases eclipsing last years total of 14,999.
A couple of programs to get dengue under control in the southern city were approved during Friday’s Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) for Dengue Outbreak meeting. First, a pilot program for cleaning of vector breeding sites in place of insecticide spraying in Kaohsiung City was approved.
Secondly, it was announced that the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) launched a three-day outdoor vector breeding site clean-up program on Thursday. The program is to be conducted in 290 villages in four districts, including Sanmin District, Lingya District, Fongshan District and Cianjhen District, in Kaohsiung City.
It is modeled after a clean-up program conducted in Singapore, which aims to raise awareness on dengue prevention in the community and get the community involved in the clean-up and removal of vector breeding sites.
Since this summer, a cumulative total of 38,369 indigenous dengue cases have been confirmed in Taiwan. The dengue related death toll remains at 174.
