■ HEALTH
HIV blood donor infects two
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed yesterday that a HIV-positive man who gave blood infected two individuals through transfusions. It is unclear exactly when the man was infected or whether the man was aware of his HIV-positive status at the time. When he gave blood last month, routine screening revealed he was HIV positive. Blood products from the donation were then destroyed. However, after reviewing their records, the CDC found that three individuals received the man's blood when he donated in July. Of the three recipients, one died of unrelated causes while the other two have been confirmed as HIV positive. There is a gap of six to 12 weeks between when an individual first becomes infected with HIV and the time when the disease can be detected via tests, accounting for the fact that the man's HIV positive status was not caught when he gave blood in July, the CDC said.
■ POLITICS
Chen urges neutrality
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday that military personnel should maintain strict political neutrality and must refrain from stumping for any candidates in the approaching elections. Chen made the remarks when he presided over a commissioning ceremony for military generals who were being promoted. He said the military serves the nation and its people and that it should remain neutral in the Jan. 12 legislative election and the March 22 presidential election. "The military should keep out of political activities and military personnel should not stump for any particular candidates," he said. The words came in the wake of an incident in which a general stumped for a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate. General Chi Lin-liang (季麟連), a strategic adviser at the Presidential Office, appeared at a rally for Lee Wen-chung (李文忠), a DPP legislative candidate. The Ministry of National Defense later recommended he should receive a major demerit as a punishment.
■ SOCIETY
Tapir makes debut at zoo
Taipei Zoo celebrated the public debut of "Molly" yesterday, the first Malaysian tapir ever born at the zoo. Molly was born on Nov. 11 after years of efforts by zoo personnel to encourage the zoo's resident Malaysian Tapirs, "Maya" and "Moka" to breed. Lin Hui-chen (林惠珍), the zoo's media coordinator, said visitors were most likely to catch a glimpse of the baby tapir on sunny afternoons. "Currently we are only allowing her out when it is sunny and the temperature is above 20oC," Lin said. "It also depends on whether or not she is in the mood to go outside." The endangered Malaysian Tapir is endemic to the tropical rainforests of southeast Asia, which means the zoo's tapir live in heated enclosures during the winter, Lin said.
■ WEATHER
Cold spell to hit tomorrow
An approaching continental polar air mass is expected to cover all of Taiwan from tomorrow through Wednesday, sending temperatures in parts of the nation down as low as 8oC, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday. Meteorologists predicted fair weather for today and tomorrow, with the exception of a slight chance of showers today. This winter's first cold continental air mass is expected to hit on Saturday and to remain stationary for five days, the CWB said. The polar air mass could cause the mercury to drop to as low as 8oC in central and northern Taiwan and to 12oC in the south and east, the CWB 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
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