A Study on Temporal and Spatial Distribution of Dengue Cases in Taiwan

Dengue fever(DF) is the fastest spreading tropical disease in the world and also the second type of infectious disease in Taiwan's Infectious Disease Control Act. DF is prevalent in the south of the Tropic of Cancer in Taiwan. The epidemic has been infectious for more than a decade. South Taiwan includes Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung are the epidemic areas of dengue fever, and reached the worst epidemic situation in nearly 50 years in 2014 and 2015. The epidemic declined rapidly after the outbreak, but it has been increasing slowly since 2018 and the epidemic area gradually moved to the north.In the past, many studies have pointed out that dengue fever is affected by climatic factors. In recent years, global warming has caused disturbances in the climate system in many regions, and dengue endemic areas may also be affected. Therefore, this study collected multi-year dengue fever data on an open data platform to investigate the correlation between weather type changes and dengue cases in Taiwan; In addition, many cases in 2014 and 2015 helped us from the perspective of medical geography to use spatial analysis methods to draw the spread of dengue fever map with the Geographic Information System (GIS) and spatial distribution, observe the spatial clustering characteristics and intensity of clustering of dengue fever. The research results can be used as a reference for government decision-making agencies to adopt dengue prevention measures to reduce the spread of dengue fever in the future.

Project ID:PF10908-0051
External Project ID:MOST109-2635-H182-001