The possibility of tuberculosis (TB) making inroads into the Presidential Office is minimal, the Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday.
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director Chou Chih-hao (周志浩) denied a report in Chinese-language Next Magazine that speculated that the Presidential Office could become a hotbed for the disease because a truck driver employed by the office was confirmed to have been infected with TB.
The magazine report said the Presidential Office had been informed of the man’s condition on May 21, yet President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) reportedly shook hands with the man during a “meet the staff” event five days later.
Chou said the health department had adopted the highest level of disease prevention and quarantine in handling the driver’s case because of the importance of the Presidential Office.
“Besides the driver’s family members, 74 staff members who had been in contact with him have been tested” and the test results were all negative, Chou said.
He said the driver had begun working at the Presidential Office in April. He went to see doctors four times because of persistent coughing, and tested positive for TB when his phlegm was examined during a fifth visit.
Unless individuals have close contact with an infected person in a poorly ventilated enclosed space for several hours, Chou said they are unlikely to catch TB.
Since the driver was a new employee and had basically worked outside of the office, the department believed there was little likelihood of top officials or staff being infected, Chou said.
Presidential Office spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said that the magazine’s report did not “conform to the truth.”
Wang also denied the claim that the Presidential Office had learned of the man’s condition on May 21. He said officials did not learn of the diagnosis until May 26 and then the building was immediately disinfected.
When Ma made his rounds to meet the building’s staff on May 26, the driver had already taken sick leave and had no contact with the president, Wang said. The driver had had no contact with any other ranking official, he said.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS