■ Health
CDC reports malaria case
The Center for Disease Control confirmed on Monday the country's first malaria case of the year. Center officials said the patient, a 48-year-old man, had been on a business trip to Madagascar from Jan. 1 to last Thursday. He developed a fever on Jan. 4 and sought medical treatment upon his return to Taiwan last Thursday. The hospital alerted the center after suspecting that he had malaria. The officials noted that the center received notification of 132 confirmed malaria cases between 2002 and last year, with 130 of those being contracted overseas, mainly from Indonesia, the Solomon Islands, Myanmar and Malawi. Since Taiwan eradicated the mosquito-borne disease in 1965, most malaria cases reported have been contracted abroad, with an average of about 30 cases per year.
■ Society
Chen Ding-nan hall planned
A preparatory committee has been formed to oversee the construction of a memorial hall in commemoration of the late minister of justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南), who died of lung cancer in November, the committee's spokesman, Lai Juei-ting (賴瑞鼎) said. Lai said construction of the hall would cost an estimated NT$50 million (US$1.5 million), and an additional NT$200 million would be needed for maintenance operations. The committee has so far collected just NT$ 9.1 million, Lai said, adding that the committee had not yet decided on a location for the planned memorial hall. According to an initial blueprint, Lai said the hall would include a main gallery to display Chen's manuscripts and other documents, particularly those from his eight years as Ilan County commissioner.
■ Diplomacy
WHA decision explained
Director-general of the Department of International Organizations John Chen (陳忠) yesterday explained why Taiwan did not apply for observer status at this year's Executive Board of the World Health Assembly (WHA) held on Monday. Chen said the decision was made following strategic considerations rather than time pressure. The Executive Board of the WHA is not a policy-making body that has the power to decide whether Taiwan could become a WHA observer, Chen said, adding that El Salvador was the only ally of Taiwan that is in the 35-member board. Therefore, it might have a negative effect if Taiwan were to insist on applying for observer status, he said. Lai added that "Taiwan will never give up its efforts to gain membership in the WHO" and will take effective and practical action to accomplish this goal.
■ Health
Visually impaired get advice
Visually impaired people need to exercise regularly to stay healthy, said Weng Lin-chung (翁林仲), superintendent of the Renai branch of Taipei City Hospital. Weng said that he found a higher rate of obesity and health issues among the visually impaired after the hospital launched a free physical check-up service. During the check-ups, one blind man who worked as a masseur admitted that he hardly did any exercise because of a loss of strength and time constraints. Weng added that many visually impaired people do not make a habit of taking regular exercise, except for walking, and do not have balanced diets. He added that it could be difficult for the visually impaired to access health information. Weng advised the visually impaired to take 30-minute exercises at least three times a week.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,