Stressing that diseases know no boundaries, a government official based in New York called for world attention to be paid to the country's efforts in fighting severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and for Taiwan to be admitted to the World Health Organization (WHO).
SARS has now spread to four continents, infecting around 2,500 people and killing more than 103 as of Monday.
Andrew Hsia (夏立言), Director-General of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York, cited the WHO Constitution as stating that "the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition."
As soon as SARS cases were suspected in Taiwan, health authorities reported the situation to the WHO, requesting a visit from experts and expressing the desire to join in the international effort to deal with the crisis.
"But our initial appeal was ignored," Hsia said, adding that "Beijing, it seems, refuses to put aside politics even when the health and safety of millions is at stake."
Another passage in the WHO Constitution states that "the health of all peoples is fundamental to the attainment of peace and security and is dependent upon the fullest cooperation of individuals and states."
The nation has worked diligently to meet this standard, despite being left out of the WHO, Hsia said. China, on the other hand, is a member of the WHO but has refused to cooperate fully with the organization, he added.
It has been widely reported that Beijing has delayed giving permission for medical experts to travel to Guangdong Province, where the disease is believed to have originated and where most cases have occurred. To make matters worse, China apparently endeavored to suppress early reports of SARS and did not notify the WHO of the spreading illness until the situation became too serious to conceal effectively.
All the while, Hsia pointed out, Beijing has stubbornly maintained that Taiwan should not be allowed a role in the world's most important health organization.
He recalled that the nation was also hindered from obtaining crucial WHO aid and information in 1998, when an enterovirus epidemic spread to the country from abroad. At that time, a great number of people were infected, with 80 people dying and a total of some US$1 billion in economic losses being incurred. The 1998 epidemic was just one of several instances in which the nation's exclusion from the WHO created difficulties, he added.
Yet, despite Beijing's attempts to isolate the nation, Hsia said, Taiwan has persisted in its efforts to provide humanitarian aid to people in need all over the world.
"Sponsored by both Taiwan's government and NGOs, our medical experts and aid workers have provided relief and assistance in such disaster and war-stricken places as El Salvador, Afghanistan, South Africa, Chad, Peru and the Eastern Caribbean," Hsia noted.
"We are committed not only to ensuring the health of people in Taiwan, but of people in every corner of the world," he added.
Now, he said, many human lives are potentially in jeopardy, and it should be very clear to all parties that excluding the nation from the WHO is both unreasonable and dangerous.
"To ensure health for all, political posturing must be dismissed," he said, adding that "Taiwan should be allowed to join fully in international action to fight the spread of SARS, and our people should be allowed representation in the WHO."
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,