Improving Capability in Dengue Fever Prevention at The Local Level by The Breeding Site Elimination Mentoring Project And Outdoor Block Joint Prevention And Control Project: Dengue Fever Outbreak in Xinzhuang District of New Taipei City as An Example, 2018

In July 2018, a dengue fever outbreak occurred in Xinzhuang District, New Taipei City. In responding to the increasing cases, the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control then organized a Dengue Fever Response Task Force and planned the ＂Breeding site elimination mentoring project＂ for training frontline prevention personnel to pass down the skills and experience to eliminate vector breeding sites. Furthermore, the Taskforce also planned the ＂Outdoor block joint prevention and control project＂ in order to assist the New Taipei City Government. This project used chemical spray to stop the transmission chain within the community and control the epidemic. A total of 296 persons were trained through the mentoring project. These trainees came from the Department of Health and Department of Civil Affairs of New Taipei City, and were trained to apply the Container Index and Adult Index to assess the risk of dengue transmission in the high-risk areas of Xinzhuang District. The results showed that the villages with the highest Container Index were Quan'an village and Taifeng village. In addition, the Qionglin village had the highest Adult Index. The project aimed at three blocks in Xinzhuang District, included 12 high-risk areas. We used Adult Index to compare the effectiveness before and after the implementation of the project. The results showed that the project might prevent the occurrence of cases in community. The dengue fever epidemic was under control by the implementation of these two major projects and active prevention and control strategies by New Taipei City government.