The Department of Health (DOH) said for the first time yesterday that local transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has occurred in Taiwan.
"Taiwan has six probable cases whose contact or travel history shows no known contacts with probable SARS cases," said Lee Ming-liang (李明亮), former director-general of the DOH and head of the SARS task force that the department has set up.
The World Health Organization (WHO) describes the extent of local transmission of SARS in Taiwan as "medium" on a three-level grading, meaning "more than one generation of local probable SARS cases, but only among persons that have been previously identified and followed-up as known contacts of probable SARS cases."
PHOTO: REUTERS
The country has reported, 131 "probable" cases and 229 "suspected" cases of SARS. Thirteen people have died of it, according to the Center for Disease Control under the DOH.
Lee said the contact or travel history of some probable cases could not be traced or identified because health officials, with their heavy workload, did not have enough time to investigate them.
However, despite the acute shortage in manpower, Lee stressed the urgency of tracing the cases because Taiwan, with six probable SARS cases with unknown origins for infection, was approaching the definition of a "high" local transmission area.
The WHO defines local transmission as when "one or more reported probable cases of SARS have most likely acquired their infection locally regardless of the setting in which this may have occurred."
"Low" levels of local transmission are when an imported probable SARS case has produced only one generation of local probable cases, all of whom are direct personal contacts of the imported case.
"If we can't trace how our cases were infected, the WHO may issue a further warning against travel to Taiwan," Lee said. "If we can efficiently trace the cases, the WHO may remove us from the list of affected areas."
"There are cases whose contact or travel history cannot be traced. As it is, we have to accept the situation" that local transmission of SARS has occurred, Lee said.
Lee said containing local transmission of SARS would be one of the task force's priorities.
"If we fail to cope with `upper stream' SARS cases, `middle and lower stream' SARS cases will keep emerging," he said.
Lee said that officials from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the WHO were taking part in Taiwan's battle against SARS.
According to Lee, the visiting WHO officials praised Taiwan's medical laboratories and clinical treatment as "top in the world," but said the country needed to strengthen its disease control.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft