■Health
KMT to hand out bleach
The KMT will start supplying free bleach in Taichung City today to help control the spread of SARS. A party official said the bleach, which can be used as a disinfectant, will be distributed to citizens free through eight KMT service centers in Taichung City. In a social-service program to help control the contagious disease, the Taichung branch of the KMT began to supply free thermometers to residents in the city a few days ago.
■ Japan
Government to send masks
The Japanese government has sent 3,000 masks for use by Japanese citizens in Taiwan amid a worsening outbreak of SARS there. The government is also considering whether to provide medical aid, including sending doctors or supplies to Taiwan, Minister of Health Chikara Sakaguchi said. There have been no confirmed cases of SARS in Japan. Global health officials have said there is no need for people to put on masks as they go about their daily business, even in areas hard hit by SARS such as Taiwan or Hong Kong. But people with respiratory infections can wear masks to avoid infecting others, and health care workers or anybody in close contact with SARS patients are advised to wear masks and take other precautions.
■ Education
TAS quarantine ends
The mandatory home quarantine for teachers and staff members of the Taipei American School (TAS) ends today, although they will still have to wear face masks when outside for the next few days. According to a message on the TAS Web site, the school received written confirmation on Monday from the Department of Health (DOH) regarding the end of the quarantine period. The statement said the DOH is requiring those finishing their quarantine to wear face masks through Sunday when they are outside their homes and DOH officials will continue to check their temperatures. The kindergarten teacher who fell ill last week with suspected SARS was released from the hospital on Monday afternoon.
■ United States
Group sends WHO sympathy
A US pro-democracy group yesterday voiced its sympathy for Taiwan which remains cut off from full participation in the World Health Organization (WHO). The China Support Network (CSN) pointed out that "at this time, it appears that Taiwan may be barred from a May 19 meeting of 190 nations and organizations, with severe acute respiratory syndrome at the top of the agenda." "Beijing may be accused of playing politics with death, and the WHO may be accused of being scandalously pliant in sacrificing Taiwan's health to avoid offending Beijing's sensitivities," the organization said. The WHO officially considers Taiwan to be a province of China. "Every international organization seems to have an unstated first premise: Don't offend the Chinese. At the World Health Organization, it is taking precedence over health," CSN director John Kusumi said.
■ Health
Hospital denies rumors
Tri-Service General Hospital denied rumors of cross-infection within the hospital yesterday. Four hospital employees have been reported as possible SARS cases. The hospital, after checking shift records, learned that the four had not come in to contact with each other, it said.
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:
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
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
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