Influenza Victims Were Unvaccinated 流感疫情再添2死 皆未接種本季流感疫苗

The CDC's latest data show that the influenza epidemic has claimed two more lives, while four new cases of monkeypox have been reported, including three domestic cases. The total number of domestic monkeypox cases to date is 10, and registration for vaccines began March 21.

The domestic monkeypox epidemic is heating up. The CDC has announced four new cases of monkeypox, and the infected persons are all Taiwanese males in their 30s and 40s. Three are domestic cases, located in New Taipei City, Miaoli County, and Yilan County. The fourth case was returning from Japan and 14 high-risk contacts have been identified. They will be monitored until March 27. The total number of domestic monkeypox cases now stands at 10.

Lo Yi-chun, Deputy Director General, CDC: “We haven't found any links between domestic (monkeypox) cases, so they're all considered isolated cases. The main point is that the risk of community transmission continues to increase.”

Meanwhile, the number of people seeking medical treatment for influenza reached 47,000 last week. The dominant strain is influenza A virus subtype H3N2. Two new deaths have been reported, one in their 50s and one in their 80s. Neither had received the current influenza vaccine.

Lin Yung-ching, Medical Officer, CDC: “These two cases both had chronic diseases. Both had diabetes. There were also some nervous system or liver and kidney-related chronic diseases.”

The CDC said the risk of community transmission of monkeypox continues to increase, so it moved up the date to register for vaccines to 3 p.m. on March 21. There will be one hospital in each of the six special municipalities designated as the vaccination site. For the first round, 2,500 vaccines are available, and the earliest they will be administered is on March 22 at Taoyuan General Hospital.

國內猴痘疫情持續升溫，疾管署公布新增4例猴痘確定病例，均為本國籍男性，年齡介於30到40多歲，其中3例為本土病例，個案居住地分別為新北市、苗栗縣及宜蘭縣，另一例則為日本境外移入病例，已匡列高風險接觸者共14人，最長監測日將到3月27日為止，累計本土猴痘個案已有10例。

疾管署副署長羅一鈞說明：「本土的猴痘病例，其實都沒有找到彼此的關聯性，所以都是屬於散發個案，主要還是社區的風險持續的提高。」

另外流感病毒也持續發威，上週門急診類流感就診人次達4.7萬多人次，流感病毒主要以A型H3N2為主，並新增2例流感死亡病例，年齡為50多歲及80多歲，兩人都沒有接種過本季流感疫苗。

疾管署防疫醫師林詠青指出：「這兩位個案都有慢性病史，那兩位都有糖尿病，那也有一些像是，就是神經系統，或者是肝腎方面的慢性病。」

疾管署表示，考量猴痘社區傳播風險增加，因此提前到21日週二下午3時，開放猴痘疫苗意願登記平台，六都各設置一家合作醫院，提供高風險族群預約接種，首批將提供2500人份疫苗，最快22日週三衛福部桃園醫院就可開打。