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Taiwan News Quick Take

■ WEATHER

Rain expected this week

Rain is expected countrywide this week as winds from the south bring warm, moist air from a low pressure system, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. Meteorologists said a receding high pressure system in the northwestern Pacific was moving eastward, allowing the low pressure system to the south to move over Taiwan. Thunderstorms are expected in the north and central parts of the country this week, while the northeast will be mostly sunny with occasional showers. The wet weather is expected to continue in the south, east and southeast through Thursday, with cloudy skies through next weekend, the bureau forecast. Temperatures this week are expected to be around 25ºC to 34ºC in the north and one or two degrees lower in most other areas, the bureau said.

■ AGRICULTURE

Goats culled after outbreak

A total of 210 goats at two farms near Taipei were slaughtered after an outbreak of goat pox, a newspaper said yesterday. The China Times said goats began to fall ill on the two farms in Taoyuan County in May. On June 27, laboratory tests identified the outbreak as goat pox. Between Tuesday and Friday the Council of Agriculture slaughtered 210 infected goats and disinfected the farms. It was the first goat pox outbreak in the country. The Council of Agriculture suspects tourists brought the disease to the farms.

■ ENVIRONMENT

Group promotes recycling

The Syinlu Foundation launched a recycling program yesterday, inviting the public to discard printer cartridges and batteries at 26 gas stations operated by Shan-Loong Transportation Co around the country to promote environmental protection and raise funds through recycling to help disabled people. As part of the program, Shan-Loong gas stations will make jobs available to mentally and physically challenged people, a foundation spokesman said. The foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the disabled, has long promoted recycling by installing bins at its various offices for used cartridges and batteries.

■ HEALTH

Alzheimer’s cases rising

The number of Alzheimer’s sufferers countrywide is increasing at a rate of 5,800 a year and care for these patients should be stepped up, the Taiwan Alzheimer’s Disease Association said on Saturday. Association president Lee Ming-pin (李明濱) said that neither medical personnel nor the public had an adequate understanding of the disease, a situation that he said needed to be addressed to improve the quality of care for Alzheimer’s patients. He said that there were approximately 150,000 people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease countrywide and that the number of doctors who are capable of diagnosing the illness was limited. Even if a case is detected early, the application process for medicines, disability certificates and foreign caregivers can result in a heavy medical care workload, he said. The Department of Health has commissioned the association to conduct research on medical care policy abroad in relation to Alzheimer’s. The association said it would collect information about public health care for Alzheimer’s sufferers in Japan, South Korea, Australia and Germany to be used as a reference for improvements in Taiwan, Lee said.
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