A total of 1031 cases of dengue have been reported for the island of Taiwan since August this year. Among these, 13 were cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever and 2 resulted in deaths. Over half of the cases, 589 total, have been attributed to Kaohsiung City, where the number of yellow fever mosquitoes and Asian Tiger mosquitoes, both transmitters of dengue, is more than 20 times that of other cities in Taiwan. Health department officials say that because no vaccine is present, most of the prevention and control efforts have been limited to attempts at killing these disease-carrying mosquitoes. Officials have set an ambitious goal of limiting the number of cases for this year to 1,500.
