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Health department vows to strengthen medical barrier

Quarantine and disease prevention efforts will be strengthened as the nation prepares to open its doors wider to Chinese tourists, Department of Health Minister Lin Fang-yue (林芳郁) said yesterday.

Fielding questions at the Legislative Yuan on the imminent opening to Chinese tourists, Lin said Taiwan could not demand that Chinese visitors undergo health checks prior to boarding a Taiwan-bound airplane, based on the principles of equality and international exchange etiquette.

“We cannot tell the Chinese that they are not welcome until they have had a health check,” Lin said.

All Taiwan could do to dispel concerns that “Chinese tourists might bring in diseases,” is to strengthen health awareness and knowledge of epidemic diseases such as tuberculosis and enteroviruses among “frontline personnel,” he said.

“We can make efforts to educate local tour guides and hotels hosting Chinese tourists about epidemic diseases so that they can contribute to controlling diseases that might be brought in by Chinese vacationers,” Lin said.

He made the remarks before the legislature’s Sanitation, Environment, Social Welfare and Labor Committee, where legislators of all political persuasions voiced concern that the nation might fall victim to epidemic diseases once Chinese citizens start pouring into Taiwan.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) asked Lin how the health department planned to keep epidemic diseases at bay in the face of an influx of Chinese tourists.

He said that Taiwan has been unable to efficiently curb the spread of tuberculosis, while China reportedly has more than 6 million TB patients.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) also asked Lin whether the department was ready to deal with possible diseases brought in by tourists.

Tien said that health and medical standards in China were less advanced than in Taiwan and that the situation regarding issues such as enteroviruses and the deadly strain of the bird flu virus could be “more serious than we know.”

Responding to the two legislators’ inquiries, Lin said that in addition to strengthening training of local tour guides and hotel personnel, Taiwan and China would have to reach an agreement on disease prevention and medical exchanges.
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