Vaccination against A(H1N1) influenza, or swine flu, will not eliminate all risk posed by the virus as there have been cases of individuals dying even after receiving vaccinations for other forms of flu, Department of Health (DOH) Minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) said yesterday.
“The same thing can be expected when the swine flu vaccine becomes available,” Yaung told a press conference yesterday, referring to the locally produced A(H1N1) flu vaccine, which is scheduled to hit the market by mid-November. “However, I would still recommend getting vaccinated because vaccines can still sufficiently protect us from being infected.”
Local biopharmaceutical firm Adimmune Corp (國光生技) won the DOH’s tender to produce 10 million doses of vaccine. However, because the company does not have experience manufacturing its own vaccine, some health experts, including former Centers for Disease Control (CDC) director-general Su Ih-jen (蘇益仁), have questioned the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine.
Yaung yesterday urged the public not to panic over the flu.
“A swine flu patient does not necessarily need Tamiflu. The most important thing is to follow your doctor’s instructions and stay at home until you recover,” he said.
At the same setting, CDC Director-General Steve Kuo (郭旭崧) said it was incorrect to cover one’s mouth or nose with the hands when coughing or sniffling because this would spread germs to more people.
“The correct behavior is to cover your mouth and nose with a handkerchief, tissue paper or even your own clothes,” he said.
“When you cover coughing or sniffing with your hands, but do not wash your hands immediately, you may spread the germs to more people through everything you touch and every hand you shake,” he said.
Meanwhile, starting yesterday, the nation’s “severe” cases of swine flu have been reclassified as “hospitalized” cases to more accurately reflect the state of the patients, health officials said.
“In the past, we referred to a swine flu case with complications, such as pneumonia, meningitis or myocarditis as ‘severe,’ but most of these complications were mild. Consequently, it was not precise to call it a ‘severe’ case,” DOH Deputy Minister Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳) said on Thursday. “The category has been renamed to ‘hospitalized’ cases.”
Kuo said that even people who stay in intensive care units (ICUs) are not necessarily in a severe condition.
“Some A(H1N1) patients were placed in ICUs mainly because hospital management adopted a very cautious approach, while in several other cases patients opted to stay in ICUs to save money on hiring caregivers,” Kuo said.
In the future, he said, the DOH would identify truly severe swine flu patients in terms of clinical data.
Health analysts said the renaming may be part of the DOH’s efforts to avoid causing public panic as the number of swine flu infections has continued to rise in Taiwan.
Five more “hospitalized” A(H1N1) cases were confirmed on Thursday, bringing to 52 the total number recorded in the country, the latest statistics released by the Central Epidemic Command Center showed.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS