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However, this time the data was “more reassuring” that the flu-like outbreak making headlines in China was not due to “unknown or unusual pathogens,” said Dr Lo, an epidemiologist.
“We look at social media posts and we don’t see alarming reports from healthcare providers this time, compared with December 2019,” he said.
“We also don’t see reports about hospital outbreaks among healthcare workers compared to last time. Those two usually indicate two alarming signals that can be related to unusual or unknown pathogens.”
Voluntary testing of inbound passengers from China, Hong Kong and Macau to airports in the main cities of Taipei, Kaohsiung and Tainan have also put minds at ease for now, he said.
Voluntary testing ‘a precaution’
Between November 26 and December 6, 88 travellers with fever or flu-like symptoms had agreed to be tested, and of the 68 who came back positive for viruses, some 70 per cent were influenza, and the remainder Covid-19 or other common cold viruses including rhinovirus, adenovirus, and parainfluenza.
No cases of mycoplasma pneumoniae, a bacterial infection which was believed to be circulating at particularly high levels among Chinese children, were detected among them.
The samples from airport quarantine stations are sent to the CDC’s central reference laboratory and probed for 17 different viruses and four kinds of bacteria linked to upper respiratory conditions and pneumonia.
Voluntary testing would continue through December and January as a precaution, said Dr Lo.
“We still have a low level of doubt, that’s why we still continue the testing process in order to gather more samples and to get more confident about the situation. But so far reassuring information comes from the WHO as well,” he said.
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