The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has changed the lifestyle of people in Taiwan, with many being more inclined to stay at home and to wash their hands more frequently, according to the results of a public opinion poll released yesterday.
The telephone survey of 838 randomly selected adult residents, conducted by the United Daily News on Wednesday found that 62 percent of the respondents have cut the number of visits to public places.
Seventy-one percent said they have increased the number of times they wash their hands in order to avoid being infected with SARS while 35 percent said they are now in the habit of wearing a surgical mask.
With the number of new SARS cases continuing to rise, 59 percent of respondents said that they have begun feeling unease about the epidemic while 41 percent said that they have not been psychologically affected.
However, there has not been a significant increase in the number of people concerned about contracting the disease since a similar poll last week. Fifty-five percent of the respondents said they are afraid of coming down with SARS, roughly the same figure as in the earlier poll.
The percentage of people who said they are not worried about contracting SARS rose to 43 percent from 35 percent in the earlier poll. Analysts attributed the rise partly to the public's increased awareness of this new disease.
While 62 percent said that they are generally satisfied with the government's response to the SARS outbreak, 25 percent said that they are dissatisfied.
Asked about their views on compulsory quarantine and shutdown of hospitals over SARS risks, 81 percent said that they support such measures and only 6 percent gave a thumbs-down.
The survey also discovered that protests by some local government chiefs against SARS medical facilities in their constituencies didn't receive recognition from ordinary people. Up to 61 percent of respondents said they are not opposed to admitting SARS patients into hospitals in their cities or counties, while 29 percent said they were, and 10 percent said they have no opinion on the issue.
More respondents voiced confidence in the government's ability to fight SARS -- 71 percent -- compared to 48 percent a week earlier. The percentage of people who lack confidence in the government's competence dropped from 30 percent to 18 percent.
The respondents were divided regarding how the SARS outbreak will develop in the future, with 39 percent saying that they foresee a further spread of the illness around the country and 37 percent forecasting a slowdown.
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