Twenty-three years on, Jackie Shao (邵于玲) still remembers the pang of grief when she lost her father to acute hepatitis B.
She also remembers an eight-year-old girl's confusion when she was diagnosed with the same disease three months after her father's death.
As Shao came of age, it dawned on her that she would carry the virus for the rest of her life.
"Now it doesn't bother me too much," Shao said in a calm tone.
As she is busy teaching at the Taipei Physical Education College, the dull pain captures her only when she takes a stroll down memory lane.
"I feel good to be alive," she said, "And I know I am lucky to survive."
Shao is lucky indeed, given the high prevalence and mortality rate of hepatitis B in Taiwan in the 1980s. Twenty years ago, one in six Taiwanese was born with the hepatitis B virus (HBV). Three people a day died of liver cancer and cirrhosis incurred by hepatitis B.
Hepatitis B was Taiwan's national disease. Taiwanese referred to it as one's "destiny," since HBV was passed from mother to baby, from generation to generation. Even now, vertical transmission still accounts for 40 to 50 percent of total infections, according to statistics from the Center for Disease Control.
As the specter of hepatitis B loomed over the entire country in the 1980s, the government was motivated to fight back. In 1984, it took the pioneering step of vaccinating every newborn. Taiwan became the first nation to launch a comprehensive vaccination program against hepatitis B.
Children born since 1984 have been immunized from HBV, which protects them for at least 15 years. The immunization policy has significantly reduced the prevalence of the disease in the past two decades, from 17 percent to 1.7 percent of the population.
"We fought the battle and we won the battle," Department of Health Director-General Chen Chien-jen (
"We expect the disease to disappear by 2030," Chen said.
While the rate of new hepatitis B cases is low, health experts have called on the government and academics to tackle emerging health challenges.
Because the disease is trans-mitted via exposure to bodily fluids containing the virus, experts are worried that it may resurface if young people engage in unprotected sex or re-use contaminated needles, as their antibody levels may decline as they grow older.
In addition, not everyone who is vaccinated develops the necessary antibodies.
"About 10 to 15 percent of people do not respond to the current vaccine," said Chang Mei-hwei (
"The future challenge lies in our ability to develop more effective vaccines with longer protection," Chang said.
"Hepatitis B will never be extinct, but we can work to lower the prevalence rate, to 0.1 percent, and to 0.01 percent. It is a never-ending task," she said.
Trips for more than 100,000 international and domestic air travelers could be disrupted as China launches a military exercise around Taiwan today, Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said yesterday. The exercise could affect nearly 900 flights scheduled to enter the Taipei Flight Information Region (FIR) during the exercise window, it added. A notice issued by the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration showed there would be seven temporary zones around the Taiwan Strait which would be used for live-fire exercises, lasting from 8am to 6pm today. All aircraft are prohibited from entering during exercise, it says. Taipei FIR has 14 international air routes and
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
City buses in Taipei and New Taipei City, as well as the Taipei MRT, would on Saturday begin accepting QR code payments from five electronic payment providers, the Taipei Department of Transportation said yesterday. The new option would allow passengers to use the “transportation QR code” feature from EasyWallet, iPass Money, iCash Pay, Jkopay or PXPay Plus. Passengers should open their preferred electronic payment app, select the “transportation code” — not the regular payment code — unlock it, and scan the code at ticket readers or gates, General Planning Division Director-General Liu Kuo-chu (劉國著) said. People should move through the
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) today released images of the military tracking China’s People's Liberation Army (PLA) movements during the latest round of Chinese drills around Taiwan. The PLA began "Justice Mission 2025" drills today, carrying out live-fire drills, simulated strikes on land and maritime targets, and exercises to blockade the nation's main ports. The exercises are to continue tomorrow, with the PLA announcing sea and air space restrictions for five zones around Taiwan for 10 hours starting from 8:30am. The ministry today released images showing a Chinese J-16 fighter jet tracked by a F-16V Block 20 jet and the
RSS