Public willingness to receive A(H1N1) influenza vaccination shots seems to have increased after intensified promotional efforts.
Figures released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) show that more than 40,000 people got vaccinated in the 24 hours between 10am on Wednesday and yesterday.
“The number has rebounded almost to the average level recorded last week,” CDC Director-General Steve Kuo (郭旭崧) said.
The immunization program almost came to a standstill early this week amid reports of the death of a boy allegedly related to A(H1N1) vaccination and a spate of cases involving patients suffering serious side effects from the shots.
In the face of mounting concern about the safety of locally produced vaccine and scathing criticism from opposition lawmakers of the immunization policy, as well as worries about a relapse of infections because of rising public resistance to inoculation, DOH Minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) was reduced to tears during a Legislative Yuan committee hearing on Wednesday.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲), meanwhile, said his appearance in a DOH-produced film urging people to get vaccinations represents his support for the government’s immunization policy, not an effort to help promote the Adimmune vaccine.
His remarks came after other DPP legislators criticized him for backing the Adimmune vaccine after reports of side effects.
“While I’m willing to take the risk by getting an Adimmune vaccine shot to back the immunization policy, I have never encouraged other people to follow suit,” he said.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
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