Test results have cleared three suspected cases of H7N9 avian influenza infection, as 10 new suspected cases were reported, the Central Epidemic Command Center said yesterday.
The announcement came after the center held a third meeting about H7N9, at which a development and production plan for a H7N9 vaccine was discussed.
Of the 10 suspected cases of H7N9 reported this week, nine were reported by hospitals and one was detected at an airport, the command center said.
“Three of the 10 were ruled not to be H7N9 infections, with two of them confirmed to be H1N1 virus infections. The rest are pending results,” Centers for Disease Control official Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said.
Two experts sent to China on Saturday last week have confirmed that there is no sign of sustained human-to-human transmission of the H7N9 bird flu so far, Chuang said.
Deputy Department of Health Minister Lin Tzou-yien (林奏延) said production of an H7N9 vaccine could be undertaken in one of two ways: either by acquiring the wild-type H7N9 virus strain from China for vaccine development or by receiving a developed vaccine strain from the WHO or the US’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“With an acquired virus strain [from China] we would be able to make a vaccine seed strain using reverse genetics, which takes about four to five weeks. The safety test takes another four to six weeks before a vaccine production strain can be provided to vaccine manufacturers. Further clinical studies would be required before market authorization could be obtained,” Lin said.
“If we can receive a vaccine production strain from the WHO or the US, things will be easier, because we can directly provide the strain to the manufacturers,” Lin said.
When asked about the possibility of a H7N9 vaccine being produced through cross-strait cooperation, as President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has said he would like to see, Lin said speed was the overriding factor.
“It would be nice to cooperate on other kinds of vaccines, but with H7N9, it seems that it would be faster to have our local companies undertake the production,” Lin said.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS