The Hong Kong government yesterday described as "unnecessary and uncalled for" Taiwan's decision to quarantine its citizens for 10 days if they visit the island because of the SARS outbreak.
A Hong Kong spokesman said, "All passengers departing Hong Kong are checked to see if they have a temperature. Anyone who has symptoms of SARS is not be permitted to leave Hong Kong.
"This measure has been acknowledged as effective by other governments. The measures being introduced in Taiwan are unnecessary and uncalled for," he said.
Despite the Hong Kong spokesman's defense of the region's preventive measures, a 6-year old Hong Kong child in Taipei was listed as a reported SARS case.
The child was visiting Taiwan with a Hong Kong tourist group, and was hospitalized at National Taiwan University Hospital yesterday after suffering SARS-like symptoms of fever and coughing, according to CNA.
The Taipei health authority said yesterday that the child has developed symptoms of pneumonia and requires a two-day observation.
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
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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
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