Investigators and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday broadened the scope of their probe into the mysterious deaths of a Hualien couple.
Test samples will be checked again and results are expected to come out within three days, CDC officials said yesterday. If these tests fail to determine what killed the couple, more samples could be sent to the US for analysis, officials added.
On Friday the Department of Health declared the couple had died after suffering from a hemophagocytic syndrome, which is contracted by virus or bacteria. Yesterday the DOH took measures to sterilize the environment in the vicinity of the couple's Hualien residence.
CDC officials also requested preventative medicine experts at the Ministry of National Defense to recheck test samples yesterday. Tests carried out at two separate institutes have so far given authorities differing accounts of how the couple could have died.
On Friday the National Taiwan University Hospital concluded, after conducting autopsies, that the rare hemophagocytic syndrome led to their deaths.
But four days ago, Taipei's Veterans General Hospital found a rare metal, tellurium, in the blood and urine of the male victim and said that he had died of tellurium poisoning.
The Criminal Investigation Bureau has requested chemists at the National Tsinghua University assist in an analysis of the element found in the couples' bodies.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
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