Taipei, Taiwan — Taiwan has reported its first confirmed case of chikungunya fever, an imported infection traced back to southern China amid a historic outbreak of the mosquito-borne virus. The patient recently traveled from Foshan, a major manufacturing city in China’s Pearl River Delta, where more than 8,000 cases have been recorded in recent weeks.
This outbreak marks the largest recorded surge of chikungunya in the region, raising concerns among health officials about the virus’s rapid spread. Roger Hewson, virus surveillance lead at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in the United Kingdom, described the scale of the epidemic as unprecedented.
Taiwanese health authorities are now closely monitoring the situation, emphasizing mosquito control and public awareness efforts to contain any local transmission. The confirmation underscores growing regional challenges posed by vector-borne diseases amid increased travel and urbanization in Asia.
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