Despite all the efforts to stop its spread, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) may be entering a phase of community transmission in this country. Dr. Lee Ming-liang (
When the first reported SARS cases appeared in early March, all could be linked to travel in China and Hong Kong. The second wave of transmissions came late last month, when mass infections were discovered at Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital and Jen-chi Hospital. Hoping Hospital's 14-day quarantine period ended Thursday. Some suspected SARS cases that cannot be traced back to the two hospitals continue to emerge. This indicates loopholes in the nation's epidemic-control network.
Taiwan must now prepare for a possible third wave of community transmission. It is better to err on the side of caution than to be overly optimistic as was the case last month.
The next round in the anti-SARS campaign will be very different from the quarantine measures slapped on Hoping and Jen-chi hospitals, where health-care workers were on the front lines of the battle to halt the spread of the virus. In the fight against community transmission, the frontlines can be anywhere -- public venues, offices, factories, even our homes. Everyone needs to work together to maintain those lines regardless of where they live, where they work, or which political party they support. A tiny lapse in vigilance could lead to mass infections such as those that occurred in Hong Kong's Amoy Gardens apartment complex.
President Chen Shui-bian (
Still, support from the military and police is not a decisive factor in this campaign. The most crucial task is to educate the public and to mobilize community and volunteer forces. To limit panic and prepare the public for possible community quarantine measures, the government should publicize information on community-level epidemic control work. The public should also be educated about personal hygiene -- regular epidemic bulletins should be published and regular disinfection rounds should be adopted.
To help ease public anxiety and inconvenience, medical institutions should also make full use of new test kits to shorten the time it takes to determine whether someone has SARS. The health-care network should also maintain its mobility and flexibility in order to tackle contingencies.
This is a fight that no one can avoid. Only united action can ensure victory.
Two sets of economic data released last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) have drawn mixed reactions from the public: One on the nation’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year and the other on Taiwan’s household wealth distribution in 2021. GDP growth for the first quarter was faster than expected, at 6.51 percent year-on-year, an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 4.93 percent and higher than the agency’s February estimate of 5.92 percent. It was also the highest growth since the second quarter of 2021, when the economy expanded 8.07 percent, DGBAS data showed. The growth
In the intricate ballet of geopolitics, names signify more than mere identification: They embody history, culture and sovereignty. The recent decision by China to refer to Arunachal Pradesh as “Tsang Nan” or South Tibet, and to rename Tibet as “Xizang,” is a strategic move that extends beyond cartography into the realm of diplomatic signaling. This op-ed explores the implications of these actions and India’s potential response. Names are potent symbols in international relations, encapsulating the essence of a nation’s stance on territorial disputes. China’s choice to rename regions within Indian territory is not merely a linguistic exercise, but a symbolic assertion
More than seven months into the armed conflict in Gaza, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide following a case brought by South Africa regarding Israel’s breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The international community, including Amnesty International, called for an immediate ceasefire by all parties to prevent further loss of civilian lives and to ensure access to life-saving aid. Several protests have been organized around the world, including at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and many other universities in the US.
In the 2022 book Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China, academics Hal Brands and Michael Beckley warned, against conventional wisdom, that it was not a rising China that the US and its allies had to fear, but a declining China. This is because “peaking powers” — nations at the peak of their relative power and staring over the precipice of decline — are particularly dangerous, as they might believe they only have a narrow window of opportunity to grab what they can before decline sets in, they said. The tailwinds that propelled China’s spectacular economic rise over the past