The Department of Health (DOH) designated infections of the H7N9 avian influenza strain as a notifiable disease yesterday, one day after four more cases of the bird-flu virus new to humans were reported in China.
Meanwhile, Chinese authorities later yesterday reported that two more people had contracted the new bird flu, one of whom has died, bringing the total number of known cases to nine and the number of deaths to three.
“We have decided to list H7N9 infection as a category five notifiable disease,” Department of Health Minister Chiu Wen-ta (邱文達) said after hosting a meeting with disease control experts.
Photo: Yao Chieh-hsiu, Taipei Times
The department has also decided to raise the quarantine alert for the H7N9 flu strain from Grade 2 to Grade 3, Chiu said.
A national-level H7N9 epidemic prevention and control center was also activated at 6pm yesterday, with Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) presiding over the center’s opening.
Centers for Disease Control Director-General Chang Feng-yee (張峰義) will serve as the new control center’s chief, Chiu said.
Chinese health authorities said on Tuesday that three women and a man, from various cities in Jiangsu Province, have fallen critically ill from the H7N9 virus. The cases were the second batch to be confirmed in China after three in Shanghai and in Anhui Province on Sunday.
Chinese authorities reported yesterday that a 38-year-old cook became ill early last month while working in Jiangsu Province. He died in hospital in Hangzhou on Wednesday last week, the Xinhua news agency reported.
Samples taken from him tested positive yesterday for the new H7N9 strain.
The second patient, also in Hangzhou, is a 67-year old who is under treatment. Xinhua said no connection between the two cases had been discovered and no one in close contact with either patient had developed any flu-like symptoms.
The Chinese news Web site Chinanews.com said the four patients in Jiangsu all reported varying symptoms of dizziness, fever, coughing and breathlessness.
The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture said it had yet to find any animals infected with the H7N9 virus, but added it was possible that H7N9 had been brought to China by migratory birds.
In Taipei yesterday, Council of Agriculture Deputy Minister Wang Cheng-teng (王政騰) said tourists from China have been barred from visiting poultry farms nationwide over concerns about avian influenza.
Huang Kuo-ching (黃國青), deputy head of the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, said the bureau has advised poultry farm operators to reject visits by Chinese tourists.
On Tuesday, when commenting on Taiwan’s ability to cope with a possible threat from the disease, Steve Chan (詹啟賢), chairman of the Taichung-based Adimmune Corp (國光生技), said that although there is no specific vaccine for H7N9 — a new variant — it is a “sibling” of the more commonly seen H5N1 virus, for which a vaccine already exists.
Should there be a major outbreak of H7N9, he said, it would take Adimmune just two months to produce between 5 million and 10 million doses of the vaccine.
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
DELAYED BUT DETERMINED: The president’s visit highlights Taiwan’s right to international engagement amid regional pressure from China President Willaim Lai (賴清德) yesterday arrived in Eswatini, more than a week after his planned visit to Taiwan’s sole African ally was suspended because of revoked overflight permits. “The visit, originally scheduled for April 22, was postponed due to unforeseen external factors,” Lai wrote on social media. “After several days of careful arrangements by our diplomatic and national security teams, we successfully arrived today.” Lai said he looked forward to further deepening Taiwan-Eswatini relations through closer cooperation in the economy, agriculture, culture and education, as well as advancing the nation’s international partnerships. The president was initially scheduled to arrive in time to celebrate
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) yesterday said the US faced a choice between an “impossible” military operation or a “bad deal” with Tehran, after US President Donald Trump disparaged Iran’s latest peace proposal. Negotiations between the two countries have been deadlocked since a ceasefire came into effect on April 8, with only one round of direct peace talks held so far. Iran’s Tasnim and Fars news agencies reported that Tehran had submitted a 14-point proposal to mediator Pakistan, but Trump was quick to cast doubt on it. “I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but
RSS