A YOUNG WOMAN died of H5N1 avian influenza virus in Beijing on Jan. 5. This should be a wake-up call for President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration as it opens up the direct three links. With the opening of direct cross-strait passenger flights, it only takes four hours for the virus to reach Taiwan. In addition, the National Immigration Agency’s computer system at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (and three others) crashed for 36 hours earlier this month, leaving national security wide open, thus causing a tremendous threat to public health in Taiwan.
Why is the world so scared of the bird flu virus? Because the 1918 human influenza epidemic — better known as the Spanish Flu — that killed between 20 million and 50 million people worldwide was also the result of a human-to-human spread of a different strain of bird flu. Bird flu is the source of human flu and the most direct example is chicken pox. Guangzhou is the main source of bird flu globally, with the world’s highest density of raised birds. Hong Kong and Taiwan are some of the closest located distribution channels.
The opening of the “small three links” posed a great risk and the opening of the direct three links on Dec. 15 made the risk even greater.
The main immediate cause of the human H5N1 outbreak in 2005 was the transmission of the virus through seasonal migration of wild geese from Qinghai Lake in Qinghai Province, spreading the virus from China and Southeast Asia to Turkey and Central Asia and further to Hungary in eastern Europe. Today, the threat has spread further to Western Europe, the UK and Canada.
The main distant cause, however, was the human H5N1 infection in Guangzhou in 1997 that resulted in the slaughtering of tens of millions of chickens in Hong Kong.
The case of a Hong Kong child infected with H5N1 while visiting relatives in Fujian Province in 1997 and the second wave of infections that swept Southeast and Central Asia in 2005 and 2006 showed that the virus can cause enteritis and encephalitis, but not pneumonia, a finding supported by The New England Journal of Medicine published on Feb. 17. It also showed that the virus tends to infect children and young adults in households raising birds and is accompanied by a death rate of more than 50 percent. The infection rate, however, is not high, and rather than droplet transmission typical in human flu, close contact is required for transmission.
Now that deaths from the virus have been reported in Beijing, Taiwanese businesspeople and tourists must take extra precautions. In the past, Hong Kong was a checkpoint for Taiwanese transferring to China, but with the opening of the direct links, the spread is no longer dependent on wild geese. In addition, it took more than one month for the Council of Agriculture to investigate the sudden death of chickens in Kaohsiung County. This is ridiculously inefficient and the public would probably be better served praying for protection.
The H5N1 virus can invade Taiwan in four hours and it is more powerful than missiles. The misery created by the SARS outbreak in 2003 should be sufficient to focus the mind. If the authorities are not alert to this situation, or if the media continue to ignore the situation intentionally or unintentionally, it is not impossible that deaths will occur in Taiwan. Should this happen, the country’s already ailing economy would suffer yet another blow. The Ma administration’s lopsided promotion of the benefits of the three direct links makes one wonder if the government is prepared for that possibility.
Mayo Kuo is a Taiwan-based pediatrician. His older brother Max Kuo is a US-based pediatrician.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
China has not been a top-tier issue for much of the second Trump administration. Instead, Trump has focused considerable energy on Ukraine, Israel, Iran, and defending America’s borders. At home, Trump has been busy passing an overhaul to America’s tax system, deporting unlawful immigrants, and targeting his political enemies. More recently, he has been consumed by the fallout of a political scandal involving his past relationship with a disgraced sex offender. When the administration has focused on China, there has not been a consistent throughline in its approach or its public statements. This lack of overarching narrative likely reflects a combination
US President Donald Trump’s alleged request that Taiwanese President William Lai (賴清德) not stop in New York while traveling to three of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, after his administration also rescheduled a visit to Washington by the minister of national defense, sets an unwise precedent and risks locking the US into a trajectory of either direct conflict with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) or capitulation to it over Taiwan. Taiwanese authorities have said that no plans to request a stopover in the US had been submitted to Washington, but Trump shared a direct call with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平)
Heavy rains over the past week have overwhelmed southern and central Taiwan, with flooding, landslides, road closures, damage to property and the evacuations of thousands of people. Schools and offices were closed in some areas due to the deluge throughout the week. The heavy downpours brought by the southwest monsoon are a second blow to a region still recovering from last month’s Typhoon Danas. Strong winds and significant rain from the storm inflicted more than NT$2.6 billion (US$86.6 million) in agricultural losses, and damaged more than 23,000 roofs and a record high of nearly 2,500 utility poles, causing power outages. As
The greatest pressure Taiwan has faced in negotiations stems from its continuously growing trade surplus with the US. Taiwan’s trade surplus with the US reached an unprecedented high last year, surging by 54.6 percent from the previous year and placing it among the top six countries with which the US has a trade deficit. The figures became Washington’s primary reason for adopting its firm stance and demanding substantial concessions from Taipei, which put Taiwan at somewhat of a disadvantage at the negotiating table. Taiwan’s most crucial bargaining chip is undoubtedly its key position in the global semiconductor supply chain, which led
RSS