On March 12, the Ministry of Health disclosed details of
infectious diseases nationwide for February 2007.
A total of 236,288 categories A and B infection cases were
reported nationwide on the mainland resulting in 432 deaths.
Cases reported accounted for all 22 types of categories A and B
infectious diseases except for plague, SARS, poliomyelitis, dengue
fever and diphtheria.
Coming out as the most reported disease was pulmonary
tuberculosis (TB), followed by hepatitis B, syphilis, dysentery and
measles. These five accounted for 86.89 percent of reported
cases.
Rabies was recorded as the deadliest infectious disease with TB,
hepatitis B, AIDS, and cerebrospinal meningitis also causing a
number of fatalities. And 89.58 percent of deaths in February could
be ascribed to these diseases.
A total of 46,430 cases of category C infectious diseases were
seen, leading to 6 deaths. Although no cases of filariasis were
reported, infectious diarrhea, mumps, and German measles accounted
for 93.80 percent of illnesses in this category.
During February, 9,501 cases of measles and 2,341 cases of
German measles were detected indicating a sharp rise in cases over
last year, with instances of these diseases up by 68.43 and 133.87
percent respectively. 2007 has seen a rapid increase in the number
of measles cases with some regions reporting widespread
outbreaks.
(Ministry of Health, March 12, 2007)