The Department of Health has started coordinating with Hong Kong's health authorities to designate medical care for travelers from Taiwan with suspected symptoms of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), to prevent them from boarding planes back to this country, an official said yesterday.
Deputy Director Lee Lung-teng (李龍騰) said the department had dispatched a public health specialist to coordinate with Hong Kong's health authority to specially designate two to three local hospitals which can provide medical treatment to Taiwanese businesspeople in China or any Taiwanese who are suspected of having SARS and are consequently rejected from boarding a plane.
"If Hong Kong's hospitals could provide sound medical treatment and are willing to accept Taiwanese for medical care, we would ask Hong Kong's hospitals to care for the patients," Lee said.
"Taiwanese patients with non-critical conditions are advised to stay in Hong Kong for medical treatment, while those with critical conditions could be sent back to Taiwan through other channels," Lee said.
"The basic principle is to determine whether or not Taiwanese should return for medical treatment. All the medical expenses will be reimbursed through the national health insurance program," he said.
Lee also said the department had planned to send medical professionals to Hong Kong to treat Taiwanese patients.
However, it was forced to abandon the plan as Hong Kong does not allow Taiwanese doctors to practice there.
"The medical professionals we sent are not licensed to practice in Hong Kong. Therefore, it might be more feasible to ask some Hong Kong hospitals with good medical capability to accept Taiwanese patients," he said.
He added that the government has designated two hospitals in northern Taiwan as "special separation hospitals" for SARS patients should the outbreak continue and the suspected cases exceed 200 cases nationwide.
Lee also announced a change in the quarantine regulations for passengers who had taken "dangerous flights" together with patients suspected of having SARS.
The new regulation says that passengers can only be subject to a 10-day quarantine if any of the passengers aboard the same aircraft develop SARS-related symptoms two days after taking the flight.
"Such a change is in accordance with the WHO's regulation based on the premise that the disease is not infectious during the incubation period of the virus," Lee said.
The previous order required that all passengers go through separation quarantine should any individual on the plane become a confirmed SARS case, regardless of how long it had been since he or she had taken the flight.
As of yesterday, two more SARS "probable cases" were reported, bringing the total of such cases to 17. There have been, however, a total of 112 suspected cases of SARS reported nationwide.
The two new identified cases, one in Taipei and one in Kaohsiung, were both middle-aged men who returned from China last month and had been given treatment in quarantine in their respective cities.
Taipei City Government's Bureau of Health began awarding cash rewards yesterday to hospitals and individual doctors who report any SARS "probable" or suspected cases.
Bureau Director Chiou Shu-ti (
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