The first local case of dengue fever in Kaohsiung was confirmed: a man was fined NT$180,000 for refusing to provide his activity history

Epidemic prevention personnel sprayed water to clear away water stagnant areas indoors. (Provided by Kaohsiung City Health Bureau)

The Kaohsiung City Health Bureau announced yesterday (23rd) the country's first confirmed local case of dengue fever this year. However, the 66-year-old man, who lives in Zhongxiaoli, Qian Township, refused and avoided providing relevant activity footprints when the health bureau immediately launched an epidemic investigation, and still evaded the most important and provided the activity history. Therefore, it was determined that he had violated the Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Law, and he would be severely fined 180,000 yuan.

The Kaohsiung City Health Bureau pointed out that the case had a hidden activity history. After further investigation, it was admitted that the case had activities in Renwu, Taishe, Xinxing, Lingya and other districts and Pingtung County. This has seriously affected the identification of the source of infection and greatly increased the potential risk of community transmission. Therefore, it was heavily fined NT$180,000 and called on citizens not to take advantage of the law.

In order to prevent the dengue fever epidemic from spreading in the community, the city government team immediately activated the cross-bureau emergency epidemic prevention mechanism and continued to carry out breeding source removal and chemical prevention and control operations around the case's residence and workplace. As of today, it has expanded the inspection of nearly 120 people around the case's activities.

In addition, when the health bureau's epidemic prevention personnel conducted community inspections and searched for breeding sources around the case's home today, they still found many dirty spots and water stagnant containers. This shows that the public's awareness of proactive epidemic prevention is insufficient, which will seriously affect the effectiveness of chemical prevention and control. The public is called on to work together to prevent and implement "inspection, emptying, cleaning, and brushing", proactively inspect the environment inside and outside the home, and thoroughly remove water stagnant containers, so as to prevent the spread of the epidemic.