No scientific evidence links the anti-viral drug Tamiflu with delirium and abnormal behavior, despite recent reports of alleged cases in Japan, said Lin Ting (林頂), deputy director-general of the Center for Disease Control.
Lin said that while some flu patients might indeed display disturbed behavior after being treated with Tamiflu, the effects are likely the result of encephalitis associated with the influenza, not the treatment.
According to an AP report, 103 possible cases of psychiatric side-effects in Japan have prompted the US Food and Drug Administration to recommend the addition of a warning message on Tamiflu packaging.
"We keep a large stock of Tamiflu for use against influenza epidemics or a bird flu outbreak," Lin said. "But we do not use it routinely to treat flu patients as they do in Japan."
Describing the use of the anti-flu medicine in Japan as "indiscriminate," Lin said that Tamiflu is currently only administered to those who display flu symptoms and have just traveled from parts of the world where the H5N1 avian influenza virus is endemic.
As for what people can do to stave off the virus, Lin suggested taking advantage of free flu vaccines the government provides for at-risk groups -- those over 65 years old, children between the ages of six months and two years, poultry industry workers and medical care providers.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
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