A cluster outbreak of Dengue fever was recently discovered at the Sanmin District of Kaohsiung City. This raises the total number of Dengue fever infections in the city to 42 by June 9. 16 out of the 42 cases are from local sources, the 26 cases were infected abroad before they entered Taiwan. Some have been speculating that Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu is preoccupied with the upcoming presidential election and doesn't pay attention to the epidemic. Chen Li-na, a city councilor from the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) held a press conference on the morning of June 10 and said the former Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu also didn't handle the Dengue epidemic well four years ago. Chen called on all parties to put partisanship aside and face the epidemic mindfully.


A cluster outbreak of Dengue fever occurred at the Sanmin District of Kaohsiung City. The city government has been busy with containing the epidemic during the Dragon Boat festival holidays. Some speculate that Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu is preoccupied with the upcoming presidential election and was busy running a campaign rally in Taipei instead of paying attention to the epidemic. Chen Li-na, a city councilor from the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) refuted the argument with a set of figures, saying that former Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu was also busy with the election four years ago when a Dengue outbreak took place in the city, and that Chen also refused the KMT's request to stop campaigning if the number of infected patients reach 1,000 in a week, which it did later on.

(When requested to stop her campaign activities, then Kaohsiung Mayor) Chen Chu responded by saying it's her duty to help (the Democratic Progressive Party) to run in the presidential election and she just carried on. We can see that, when the number of patients reached 1,000 in week 41, Chen Chu went to Taipei to host an event for (incumbent president, then-DPP candidate) Tsai Ing-wen.

Chen said that she is showing the data and hoping that members of both major parties would pay attention to the ongoing epidemic. She also said that the issue should not be politicized, and that she hopes incumbent Mayor Han Kuo-yu would also stop campaigning if the number of Dengue patients reaches 1,000.

Cleaning the possible breeding sources of Dengue fever, especially after the rain, is very important groundwork. As long as we take care of that, the number of patients won't reach 1,000.

According to the statistics from the Kaohsiung City Department of Health, there are 16 cases of confirmed infection from Kaohsiung, and another 5 possible cases that awaits blood tests. The department said that the cluster outbreak in the city's Sanmin District doesn't appear to have spread, but they will need to wait until after July 4 to know for certain whether the epidemic is successfully contained.



高雄市三民區發生登革熱群聚感染，端午連假，市府持續防疫，針對外界批評市長韓國瑜疫情升溫時，北上凱道又到花蓮造勢，國民黨高雄市議員陳麗娜10號上午拿出數字反擊，指控前高雄市長陳菊4年前在登革熱疫情升溫時，同樣輔選，無視當時國民黨團要求她單週病例破千後就停止輔選的要求。

國民黨高雄市議員 陳麗娜表示：「當時陳菊市長在議會裡面，回應我一句說，輔選是她的責任，所以她就一路輔選下去，大家可以看到這裡不論是在這個(登革熱)破千例的當下，41週是破千例的時候，她到台北，去主持蔡英文的全國總部成立大會。」

陳麗娜說，提出這些資料是希望不管國民黨、或民進黨執政都應該重視防疫，但也不應該讓防疫工作淪為政治口水，因此也同樣呼籲高雄市長韓國瑜，若高雄市登革熱病例數單週破千例，也要停止所有競選活動。

高雄市環保局長 林立人表示：「把這些環境可能存在的孳生源，尤其下過雨之後的檢查跟清除，這個是我們重要的基本功，所以把這些基本功做好，就沒有(病例破千例)那樣的條件發生的可能。」

衛生局統計，高雄有16例確定病例，還有5例等待採血確認，目前看來，三民區群聚感染的部分並沒有往外擴散的跡象，但要確定疫情被控制，還是要等到7月4號後都沒新例傳出才能肯定。