With close to 10,000 new cases of influenza being reported per week over the past few weeks, the Department of Health (DOH) said it would soon allow for the expanded use of the antiviral drug Tamiflu, an official said yesterday.
Since Aug. 15, anyone testing positive for the swine flu virus using a preliminary test kit has received a course of Tamiflu treatment covered by National Health Insurance, said Kuo Hsu-sung (郭旭崧), director-general of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
While the kits are paid for by the CDC, Taiwan is facing a shortage, Kuo said.
Those who test negative for A(H1N1) virus but who have been diagnosed with flu and have experienced exacerbations or pneumonia can obtain a prescription for Tamiflu, but will have to pay for the drug, Kuo said, adding that these cases would also be covered by National Health Insurance in the near future.
Tamiflu should not be given to all patients with flu-like symptoms without undergoing screening because that could cause drug misuse and abuse, while about 30 percent of people who use Tamiflu experience harmful side effects that are actually worse than the symptoms caused by the virus, Kuo said.
At present, hospitals and medical centers equipped with both Tamiflu and quick-test kits are mostly larger facilities, requiring patients with flu-like symptoms attending smaller hospitals or clinics to be referred to bigger institutions for testing and treatment.
The preliminary test kits, which cost between NT$250 and NT$300 each, are in short supply because of insufficient production and high production costs, Kuo said. The department would coordinate with biomedical companies to speed up production of the test kits to meet an anticipated increase in demand during the peak of the seasonal flu period next month.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Celebrations marking Double Ten National Day are to begin in Taipei today before culminating in a fireworks display in Yunlin County on the night of Thursday next week. To start the celebrations, a concert is to be held at the Taipei Dome at 4pm today, featuring a lineup of award-winning singers, including Jody Chiang (江蕙), Samingad (紀曉君) and Huang Fei (黃妃), Taipei tourism bureau official Chueh Yu-ling (闕玉玲) told a news conference yesterday. School choirs, including the Pqwasan na Taoshan Choir and Hngzyang na Matui & Nahuy Children’s Choir, and the Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra, flag presentation unit and choirs,
China is attempting to subsume Taiwanese culture under Chinese culture by promulgating legislation on preserving documents on ties between the Minnan region and Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said yesterday. China on Tuesday enforced the Fujian Province Minnan and Taiwan Document Protection Act to counter Taiwanese cultural independence with historical evidence that would root out misleading claims, Chinese-language media outlet Straits Today reported yesterday. The act is “China’s first ad hoc local regulations in the cultural field that involve Taiwan and is a concrete step toward implementing the integrated development demonstration zone,” Fujian Provincial Archives deputy director Ma Jun-fan (馬俊凡) said. The documents