Hsi-hsi knew she would never enjoy a wedding night, a honeymoon, or even a future with Wei-bi when she married him last year. Their wedding was held in an intensive care unit in Taipei, where a paralyzed Wei-bi was receiving treatment.
"My husband was so strong and healthy when we first met [in 1999]," Hsi-hsi said, adding that Wei-bi became progressively sicker beginning early last year, and never recovered.
Not long after their wedding, Wei-bi succumbed to AIDS.
"My husband would have wanted me to be here today, working to prevent AIDS," Hsi-hsi told reporters at a press conference at the Taiwan AIDS Foundation's headquarters in Taipei yesterday.
The foundation had called the conference to announce that it will be holding a fundraising drive on Aug. 30 -- Chinese Valentine's Day.
"Valentine's Day is just around the corner," foundation chairman Twu Shiing-jer (
"So, this is the perfect time for us to promote a romantic but safe holiday," he said.
According to the foundation, games and activities for couples, and a concert will be held at the square near Warner Village Cinema on Wednesday.
People who donate at least NT$100 to the foundation at the event will receive NT$500 worth of fruit-flavored condoms, said Lin Chiung-chao (
Lin said the foundation would promote awareness of AIDS and safe sex at Wednesday's event.
"Since an AIDS vaccine or a cure still doesn't exist, we must focus on prevention," said Nick Liao (
Prevention and early detection were the themes of the conference, with Hsi-hsi pleading for couples to use condoms and to learn more about HIV/AIDS.
"It was because my husband and I used condoms that I was able to avoid contracting the disease," she said, adding that if only she and Wei-bi had been tested for AIDS sooner, he would probably be alive and healthy today.
Tsai Su-fen (
"If one is diagnosed early, and starts treatment in the early stages of the disease, AIDS is quite manageable, and one can lead a fairly normal life," Tsai told reporters.
As for how people with HIV/AIDS are received in society, Tsai said that 80 percent of those diagnosed with HIV/AIDS were accepted by their family members and associates, leading fairly normal lives.
"However, there is always a segment of HIV/AIDS-infected people who are ostracized by their family members or fired by employers because of the disease," Tsai 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