Due to the globalization and frequent international exchanges, emerging infectious diseases spread easily and rapidly and cause the great physical, mental, social health treats for all people.
In order to effectively detect emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases in Taiwan for timely prevention and control measures, the Department actively assists the Centers for Disease Control in promoting the notification of the 4 syndromes, acute hemorrhagic fever syndrome, acute respiratory distress syndrome, acute jaundice syndrome and acute neurological syndrome. When discovering a relevant clinical case, the Department will report to the competent authority of health immediately, in order to avoid operation delay and epidemic spread affecting peoples’ health and epidemic prevention.
The researches of the Department focus on the clinical analysis of emerging bacteria and bacteria with increasing drug resistance, drug resistance, pathogenesis and molecular epidemiology, including the drug-resistance epidemiology of staphylococcus aureus. The comprehension of drug-resistance epidemiology will contribute to look for solutions of increasing drug resistance.
In general, about 3 of every 10 healthy people have staphylococcus aureus (SA) around their nasal cavity and/or skin, but most of them do not know that they have become staphylococcus aureus carriers. These bacteria will cause a variety of blood, lung, and other tissue infections after entering or passing through peoples' skin.
The Department discovered that methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) with drug resistance has resistance against some antibiotics that are often used in the treatment of staphylococcus aureus infections. The occurrence rate of this case is high in Taiwan. Although the case may be insufficient to endanger patients, the solution and prevention shall be developed because of the frequent misuse or overuse of antibiotics in Taiwan.
According to the discovery of the Department, although most of the CA-MRSA bacteria is type A, it is polymorphism and tends to generate resistance against various drugs.