The Head of Taiwan's delegation to the World Health Organization's (WHO) Global Conference on SARS in Kuala Lumpur made a plea to the organization yesterday to dispatch permanent officials to Taiwan.
Su Ih-jen (蘇益仁), director-general of the Center for Disease Control (CDC), presented the appeal to participants in one of the conference's morning breakout groups which focused on surveillance and response coordination.
Yesterday was the last day of the two-day SARS conference. The morning breakout groups were open only to invited participants. All 13 sessions ran concurrently from 9am to noon.
Su was one of the panelists in his session, which was chaired by Dr. Ray Arthur, associate director for global health at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (USCDC).
Su reported on Taiwan's experience in establishing surveillance systems in the course of the country's SARS outbreak. His appeal to the WHO to send permanent officials to Taiwan came in his closing remarks.
Although there were WHO officials present during the session, they said it would not be proper for them to comment on Su's appeal.
Su made the appeal to the WHO for the first time and said he would soon write a formal letter to present his plea to the organization.
In a press conference held after yesterday's closing ceremony, WHO Director-General Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland and Executive Director for Communicable Diseases Dr. David Heymann said they had not seen Su's request.
"WHO and its collaborating centers have been supporting the authorities, governments and public health communities to deal with the disease in Taiwan as well as everywhere else," Brundtland said.
When asked whether the presence of WHO officials in Taiwan had made a substantial difference to Taiwan's capacity to monitor and control the SARS epidemic, Brundtland said she thought that it had.
Nevertheless, Brundtland did not elaborate about how exactly the WHO had contributed to Taiwan's fight against of SARS.
"I am not going to pass judgment," she said.
"We have been in many places in Taiwan and other places to help and improve the surveillance system," Brundtland said.
"I think that wherever we go, we probably make a difference. Otherwise we couldn't be spending our limited resources to do so," she said.
Brundtland, who arrived at Kuala Lumpur's Sunway Lagoon Resort Hotel, venue for the SARS conference, on Tuesday afternoon, encountered Su upon her arrival at the hotel.
Su and Brundtland shook hands. Brundtland looked closely at the badge Su wore and warmly welcomed Su. Taiwan's delegation will be returning to Taiwan tonight.
Meanwhile, Director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases of the USCDC Dr. James Hughes said the institution is considering sending more help to Taiwan for controlling SARS.
"We are talking with Taiwanese officials about additional ways in which we may be helpful," Hughes said.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai