A WHO official said on Thursday that there have been no confirmed cases of H5N2 avian influenza affecting humans and the possibility of the virus seriously affecting human health in a way similar to the more virulent H5N1 was low.
Gregory Hartl, spokesperson for the WHO’s Global Alert and Response Network, told the Central News Agency that H5N2 is one of many avian flu viruses and that it is unpredictable, but so far there have been no confirmed cases of humans contracting the H5N2 virus.
It is possible that there might be incidents of the H5N2 virus existing undetected in humans and the virus might affect humans in the future, but the present risk to humans was low, he said.
Photo: Wang Han-ping, Taipei Times
The official made the remarks after Taipei alerted the World Organization for Animal Health on March 3 that a highly pathogenic H5N2 strain had been detected and resulted in a recent outbreak.
According to Department of Health Deputy Minister Lin Tzou-yien (林奏延), blood samples from nine workers at a poultry farm in Changhua County were tested, but the H5N2 virus was not detected.
In Greater Tainan, where about 4,000 chickens were culled last month after the H5N2 virus found at a farm was confirmed to be highly pathogenic, 38 workers have had blood samples taken, Lin said, adding that the test results had not come back yet.
He said H5N2 is a commonly found virus among birds and the “highly pathogenic” tag refers to the high infection rate among birds affected by the virus, not its possible effect on humans.
He added that no global medical data showed that H5N2 had infected humans.
He called for Taiwanese not to panic over the latest H5N2 outbreak, suggesting that chicken and eggs be fully cooked before being consumed.
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