Publications by authors named "Chan-Hsien Chiu"
Background: In order to facilitate public health response and to achieve early control of infectious disease epidemics, an adjustable epidemiologic information system (AEIS) was established in the Taiwan public health network in February 2006.
Methodology/principal Findings: The performance of AEIS for the period 2006 through 2008 was evaluated based on a number of response times (RT) and the public health impact. After implementation of the system, the apparent overall shortened RT was mainly due to the shortening of personnel response time (PRT) and the time needed to draft a new questionnaire that incurred as personnel-system interface (PSI); PRT dropped from a fluctuating range of 9.
Influenza is a frequent cause of acute respiratory illness (ARI). In July 2008, we conducted a retrospective cohort study to investigate an influenza outbreak occurring in an overland travel group of overseas students. ARI was defined as the presence of any respiratory symptom such as cough, rhinorrhoea, sore throat or stuffy nose.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn 2008, an outbreak of human trichinosis associated with ingestion of raw soft-shelled turtles was identified and investigated in Taiwan. The data suggested that patients were likely infected with Trichinella papuae.
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- A syndromic surveillance system (ED-SSS) was set up in Taiwan in 2004 to enhance early detection of infectious diseases by automatically transmitting patient data from emergency departments to the CDC.
- The development of the system involved consulting healthcare professionals and collaborating with the University of Pittsburgh to analyze real-time data from 189 hospitals over a year.
- The system successfully identified significant trends in illness spikes and ED visit patterns, contributing to improved public health decision-making and pandemic preparedness in Taiwan.
The association of gastric Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) with human herpesvirus type 8 (HHV-8) may be found in immunosuppressed patients such as those with AIDS or transplant recipients. A 64-year-old man with a 2-year history of corticosteroid treatment was admitted due to the impression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with secondary infection. Abdominal fullness and tarry stool led to the performance of panendoscopy, which revealed two hypertrophic gastric mucosal lesions.
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