Doctors yesterday urged people in high-risk groups to take preventive measures and get vaccinated against influenza, while people 65 or older should consider getting an adjuvanted flu vaccine, amid a longer-than-typical flu season.
The Lee CY’s Research Foundation for Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Vaccines said that since the mask mandate was mostly lifted in April, flu infections have gradually increased, with more than 300 severe flu complication cases reported in the past six months, adding that the peak season was delayed until spring and summer.
National Taiwan University Children’s Hospital superintendent Huang Li-min (黃立民) said that in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 had an advantage over other viruses when competing for uninfected cells in the upper respiratory tract, leading to fewer people getting the flu.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
However, after the lifting of three years of pandemic restrictions, more people are getting the flu or other respiratory tract infections.
The peak flu season came earlier in the US and Australia last year, but in Taiwan — where the flu season is usually in autumn and winter, and plateaus in winter — the peak season has been delayed, meaning that people are at risk of flu infections all year, and the situation might continue for two to three years.
People at higher risk of developing severe flu complications — people 65 or older, children and those with chronic medical conditions — should especially take precautionary measures throughout the year and get the seasonal flu vaccination in autumn to prevent infection, Huang said.
Chan Ding-cheng (詹鼎正), director of National Taiwan University Hospital’s Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology, said that among the severe flu complications reported this flu season, about half were in people aged 65 or older, and 87 percent did not get vaccinated.
The risk of developing severe illness in people older than 65 is about sevenfold greater than for those aged 25 to 49, and the fatality rate among people 65 or older with severe flu is 11 times greater than for people aged 25 to 49, he said.
However, only 45.8 percent of people aged 65 or older have received a government-funded flu vaccine, he added.
Moreover, due to immunosenescence — which is the progressive deterioration of the immune system with increasing age — people 65 or older might have weaker (about 50 percent protection) and shorter (effects lasting only about five months) responses to vaccination than younger adults, he said.
Huang said that in the UK and some other countries, people aged 65 or older have the option to receive an adjuvanted flu vaccine, which promotes a better immune response (by about 20 to 30 percent) and might extend the effect for as long as one year.
If it is introduced in Taiwan this year, people aged 65 or older should consider getting the pay-out-of-pocket adjuvanted flu vaccine too, he said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS