Northern Taiwan has recorded its first hantavirus case after a man who is a worker in a restaurant in Keelung City has been diagnosed with the disease.
According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the 40-year-old patient started experiencing symptoms of the disease including fever, diarrhea, and muscle pain on April 10. He was hospitalized on April 11 and was diagnosed with hantavirus on May 5 after the second test last April 27.
The patient said that he saw rats, the carriers of the disease, at his workplace but insisted that he had not been bitten. The locations the he has visited is now beeing sterilized and on pest control. The people who have come into contact with him were also traced and currently not exhibiting symptoms of the disease.
The health authorities are now urging restaurants hotels, markets, food stalls, and food factories in Keelung to strengthen their measures against rodents. The public were also told to sterilize areas contaminated by rodent excrement by using diluted bleach.
Hantavirus is a virus spread and contracted through contact with rodent urine and feces or rodent bites. Symptoms include fever, muscle pain, headache, abdominal pain, and flushing. Some patients also experience hemorrhaging, shock, and renal failure.
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