■SARS
AIDS expert says don't panic
A world renowned AIDS specialist said recently that the world has overreacted to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak, according to a Web site report out of Hong Kong yesterday. Dr. David Ho (何大一), a pioneer of the so-called cocktail treatment for AIDS, reportedly called for people around the world not to panic over the SARS epidemic. He was quoted in the Web site report as saying that people have been overly frightened about SARS due in large part to the fact that they have little knowledge about the new viral disease and to the fact that the media has excessively played up the epidemic.
■ Diplomacy
Palau visitors arrive
Palau Vice President Sandra Pierantozzi is leading a four-member delegation that arrived in Taipei yesterday for a five-day visit, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Pierantozzi and his delegation will meet with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (簡又新) and Department of Health Director-General Twu Shing-jer (涂醒哲), the ministry said in a press release. They will also visit Taiwan Handicraft Promotion Center, Taroko National Park, Tzu-Chi Buddhist General Hospital, Taipei Floriculture Experiment Center and other cultural and economic establishments.The delegation is scheduled to leave on Saturday.
■ Culture
Three groups to visit US
Three cultural groups are scheduled to leave for the US tomorrow to perform in 15 cities as part of the Taiwanese American Heritage Week programs, Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission chief Chang Fu-mei (張富美) said yesterday. The three groups are the Taiwan Hakka Culture Delegation (台灣客家文化訪問團), Taipei Aboriginal Dance Art Club (台北山舞藝術團) and Jiangtzichuei Theater Group (江之翠劇場). The Formosan Association for Public Affairs, a Washington-based lobbyist for Taiwan, has sponsored the Taiwan American Heritage Week programs since 1999.
■ Aid
Rice going to Indonesia
The government said yesterday that it will donate 50,000 tonnes of rice to poverty-stricken people in Indonesia. "We will send the rice to Indonesia in five shipments. The first shipment -- 10,000 tonnes -- will be sent in early May," a Department of Health official said. The rice will be distributed to poor people on Java, Sumatra, Kilimantan and Sulawesi. "We hope our donation can help ease Indonesia's food shortage and strengthen the friendship between out two countries," the official said.
The government has said it will donate 100,000 tonnes of surplus rice to foreign countries each year.
■ Protest
Rally set to go ahead
A "Call Taiwan Taiwan" rally, slated to be held on May 11 in Taipei, will be held as scheduled, despite public fears over SARS, organizers announced yesterday. The Alliance to Campaign for Rectifying the Name of Taiwan issued a statement that said they decided to go ahead with the rally after having thoroughly studied the impact of the potentially deadly disease since its outbreak in the middle of last month. The alliance blames China for Taiwan's diplomatic isolation in the international community and for its industrial hollowing out and talent exodus.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not