The ongoing influenza A(H1N1), or swine flu, outbreak in the nation is likely to run for at least 200 weeks, making the country’s epidemic control effort a long-haul fight, Department of Health (DOH) Minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) said yesterday.
While an estimated 30 percent of Taiwan’s population, or 7 million, will be infected with swine flu, they are unlikely to get sick at the same time, Yaung said.
“If 30,000 people are infected per week, the outbreak will last for at least 200 weeks,” he told a news conference.
Yaung said he was confident that Taiwan could handle the situation, noting that the new type of flu was not incurable, and only slightly more dangerous than normal flu.
Computer simulations generated by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reveal that there were 15,000 new cases in the past week.
As of Wednesday, Taiwan had recorded 47 severe swine flu infections, five of which had resulted in death, the CDC said.
Yaung said that compared with other countries in the region, the situation in Taiwan has remained moderate.
For example, he said Australia has seen 132 people die from the disease, and fatalities in Malaysia and Singapore have reached 63 and 12 respectively.
CDC Director-General Steve Kuo (郭旭崧), meanwhile, said no drug-resistant strains of the swine flu have been detected in Taiwan.
The forensic report on the fifth swine flu death in the country showed that it was not caused by a drug-resistant swine flu strain, he said.
Regarding President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) controversial decision to forego the national security mechanism in dealing with the swine flu outbreak, Yaung said he was the person who advised the president not to do so.
Yaung said the nation’s swine flu epidemic was still under control so launching the national security mechanism was not necessary at the moment. Exaggeration and rumors would do a lot more damage than the disease itself, he said.
“A log of suggestions by physicians, experts or former officials has been compiled. I appreciate, respect and take them as references. But, if you are not a physician and not an expert, please stop spreading rumors because what you say can create more chaos, which could be a lot worse than the disease,” he said, warning that “rumor mongers” can be fined up to NT$500,000 (US$15,000) according to Article 63 of the Communicable Disease Prevention and Control Act (傳染病防治法).
“I urge the public to maintain a normal life. We should be confident in our anti-epidemic procedure,” Yaung said.
Meanwhile, yesterday afternoon Ma held a three-hour meeting with epidemic prevention experts at the Presidential Office.
Ma said that although it was unnecessary to call a national security meeting or declare a state of emergency for the moment, he has ordered the National Security Council (NSC) to join the Cabinet’s epidemic command center to advise him on the matter.
Emphasizing that it required careful evaluation to call a national security meeting or issue an emergency decree, Ma said he did not want to cause any unnecessary panic or underestimate the impact of the epidemic.
“I hope the Executive Yuan’s central epidemic command center will exercise its professionalism to make suggestions and we will fully cooperate,” Ma said.
Since the NSC has already established a task force on the epidemic, Ma said he has requested the task force to participate in the central epidemic command center to ensure smooth communication between the Presidential Office and the Executive Yuan on the matter.
Ma said yesterday’s meeting showed his concern for the situation “as the president of the Republic of China.”
Although the time was not ripe to call a national security meeting or activate the national security mechanism, Ma said he wanted the public to know that the government was prepared to deal with the epidemic on a national level.
At a separate setting earlier yesterday, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) said the government would update the public on the latest swine flu development two times a day — once in the morning and once in the afternoon.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHIH HSIU-CHUAN
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