■ Health
Whooping cough strikes
The Center for Disease Control yesterday reported the first case of a group infection of whooping cough this year and called on parents to have their infants vaccinated to fend off the respiratory disease. Health officials yesterday confirmed that a family had been infected when a two-month-old baby transmitted the bacteria infection to his uncles. "Usually, the whooping cough peak season lasts from April to July and affects about 20 people every year. The first case this year is an alarming sign of its coming," said Yan Jer-jea (顏哲傑), director of the center's immunization division. Yan called on parents to have their children vaccinated. "Most infants can be immunized against whooping cough if they get the DPT [diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus] shots," he said.
■ Charity
Book sale set for TAS
The Taipei American School's (TAS) Orphanage Club will hold its annual March book sale on Saturday from 10am to 5pm in the lobby and forecourt of the school. Club members have collected thousands of books, magazines, comic books and games, including best sellers, biographies, art and travel, children's books, cookbooks and English-teaching books. Hundreds of books in Chinese and other languages will also be available. Money raised from the book sale will provide funding for orphans and other needy children in Taiwan and outlying islands as well as other countries. The Orphanage Club is one of the oldest and largest student organizations at the school, with members ranging in age from junior-high to high-school students. TAS is located at 800 Chungshan N. Rd, Sec 6, in Tienmou.
■ Politics
President decorates Chien
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday decorated former Control Yuan president Fredrick Chien (錢復) with the Order of Chiang Kai-shek Grand Cordon to honor his contribution to the development of the country's democratic politics and enhancement of human rights. In his speech accepting the honor, Chien praised the contributions of all members of the Control Yuan and said his decoration by the president is a gesture of recognition to the Control Yuan as a whole. In view of a call from some suggesting that the Control Yuan be merged with other governing bodies, Chien, took the opportunity to plead on the Control Yuan's behalf and stressing the need to have an independent body to act as a watchdog.
■ Society
Senior citizen numbers rise
Senior citizens made up 9 percent of the overall population last year, higher than the global average of 7 percent, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. Taiwan ranked third in Asia in terms of the ratio of senior citizens to the total population, trailing only Japan, at 19 percent, and Hong Kong, at 12 percent. The global aging index, calculated by dividing the number of people aged 65 or over by the number of people aged below 14, stood at 23.3 last year. A higher index indicates a greyer population. By continent, North America had the highest aging index, at 57.1, while Africa had the lowest, at 7.1. Asia's average index was 20, with Japan's standing at a whopping 135.7. Taiwan became an aging society as defined by the UN in 1993 when the ratio of the country's senior citizens reached 7 percent of the total population for the first time. The aging index rose from 28.2 in 1993 to 45 last year.
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
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
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