Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) yesterday questioned the Department of Health’s policy of encouraging pregnant women to receive the swine flu vaccine.
At a press conference in the legislature, Yang said that many countries, including the US and Japan, had barred pregnant women from receiving versions of the vaccine that contained adjuvants — immunological agents that are used to modify the effects of a vaccine.
“In Canada, [doctors] will not agree to give the [H1N1] vaccine with adjuvants to women who have been pregnant for more than five months unless vaccines without adjuvants are seriously insufficient,” Yang said, adding that Israel prohibits pregnant women from receiving the shots.
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Yang expressed her concern after the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) repeatedly urged pregnant women to get vaccinated against the flu.
CDC figures show that 878 victims of swine flu have been hospitalized in Taiwan and 38 have died.
Among the fatalities, 33 were pregnant, overweight, had cardiac problems, diabetes or renal problems. None had received the vaccine.
CDC spokesman Shih Wen-yi (施文儀), who was present at the conference, said he had never heard of such a ban.
“As far as I know, I’ve never heard of [the ban]. There must be some misunderstanding,” Shih said.
Shih said the Novartis vaccine contains adjuvants, while the local version produced by Adimmune does not.
“But in accordance with the WHO’s Briefing Note 14, all pregnant women should receive [H1N1] vaccines with or without adjuvants regardless of whether they are in the first, second or third trimester of pregnancy,” Shih said.
In related news, the CDC’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) yesterday completed investigations into three new complaints concerning injuries possibly related to the swine flu vaccine and said none was related to the vaccine.
VICP members met on Wednesday to discuss the three cases and the results of the meeting were made public in a press release yesterday.
The first case involved a 74-year-old woman suffering from high blood pressure, liver problems and diabetes. She developed red and swollen skin and eye secretions.
She was diagnosed with Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a skin condition where cell death causes the epidermis to separate from the dermis, a condition that is believed to be related to the immune system.
Rejecting any link to the vaccine, the VICP said the victim’s family members should file a drug compensation complaint with the CDC.
The second case involved a 52-year-old male with renal problems. He developed breathing difficulties on the day he received the vaccine. Three days later, physicians diagnosed him with a lung infection and he died after his condition became critical.
The final case involved a 14-year-old girl who began to feel dizzy after receiving the vaccine. Six days later, she went to hospital for a check up, but the results showed she was fine despite claims that she had difficulty urinating.
The VICP said it has received a total of 127 swine flu vaccine-related complaints so far. VICP members have investigated 28 cases, ruling that 26 were unrelated to the vaccines while two resulted in compensation.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the