Taiwan was more prepared for pandemic influenza H1N1 in 2009-2010 than it was for the 2003 SARS outbreak. Health education in elementary and middle schools is now more thorough, local health personnel worked very hard to implement H1N1 vaccinations and better health informatics at the CDC led to more effective monitoring of the situation worldwide. While this has been indispensable to controlling the epidemic, many decisions are still being made by non-specialists who are formulating prevention and control strategies driven by government policy that is not based on scientific facts or informed by professional judgment. If this does not change, the repercussions could be very serious should we encounter a particularly virulent virus, much worse than this time.
My recommendation, then, would be for the government to establish a research and health policy team focused on emerging infectious diseases so that we are fully prepared for the next epidemic. Of course, policy should be driven by concern for our fellow citizens, but it also needs to be strongly supported by solid scientific evidence if we are going to succeed in the war against these volatile diseases.
King Chwan-chuen is a professor at the Institute of Epidemiology at National Taiwan University.
TRANSLATED BY PAUL COOPER
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