The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are concerned that cross-strait tourism, trade exchanges, rampant smuggling and lack of transparency regarding epidemics in China will make that country the biggest obstacle to disease prevention in Taiwan.
Quoting a report from China's Ministry of Health in February, the CDC said that 4,608,910 people in China contracted a transmittable disease last year and that 10,726 died from such diseases.
The centers said the four biggest killers in China in the last two years were tuberculosis, rabies, AIDS and hepatitis B.
It said that the level of health care in China is not very good and uneven at best, which can be seen from the number of tuberculosis cases.
Cases of people contracting rabies, which no longer exists in Taiwan, were reported in Shanghai and Beijing and in Yunnan, Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces last year.
Twenty-five cases of bird flu have been confirmed in China and of those cases, 16 died, the CDC said.
The five H5N1 permutations that have appeared around the world may all have their origin in Guangdong Province, it said.
Saying that the virus could now be firmly rooted in Guangdong Province, the CDC called on people traveling to the region to avoid contact with birds and wild animals, and asked any traveler who develops a fever to give a detailed account of their travels when consulting a doctor.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about