聯合翻譯有限公司/聯合翻譯社

聯合翻譯 引用自 Taipei Times http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2014/05/06/2003589644

The peak season for enterovirus is between April and June. Six elementary and kindergarten classes in Hualien County were canceled this year for a week due to hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD). The Hualien County Health Bureau has therefore been trying to raise children’s awareness about the importance of washing their hands frequently. The bureau held its first educational event at Ming Yih Primary School on April 28. During the event, children and parents did a hand-washing dance to beat the enterovirus monsters.

Bureau Director Hsu Hsiang-ming says that a few cases of enterovirus started appearing toward the end of March. The peak season for enterovirus usually starts in May and lasts until the middle of June, and affects both adults and children alike, Hsu says. As of last week there were a total of six classes in Hualien County that had two children with the enterovirus HFMD all within a week, so classes were automatically canceled for a week, including lower grade elementary school students and kindergarten classes. The cases were concentrated around northern Hualien County. Thus far there have not been any severe cases and hopefully it will stay that way, Hsu says.

According to bureau statistics, the last class that applied to cancel classes for a week was a kindergarten in Hualien City. Classes were canceled on April 21 because three kids had HFMD in the middle of April. The school, including desks and chairs, were all disinfected and classes opened again on April 28.

Hsu says that the bureau and the Hualien Education Department are working together, with school teachers and local health agencies holding events to help raise awareness, hopefully getting children in the habit of washing their hands frequently. Getting them in the practice of following five main steps for washing their hands — wet, scrub, rinse, hold, dry — is the only way to reduce the spread of viruses.

Parents dressed up as cartoon characters SpongeBob SquarePants and Doraemon during the bureau’s enterovirus awareness event at the school on April 28, doing a “wet, scrub, rinse, hold, dry” hand-washing dance with the children, who pretended to be “hand-washing warriors” fighting against the other children who dressed in all black as the enterovirus.