■HEALTH
Measles case found
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first indigenous case of measles this year: a 31-year-old Taipei County resident who has never been vaccinated against the virus.The patient first came down with a fever and rash on April 27. He made four visits to two clinics before finally being diagnosed at a medical center on April 30, according to CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ting (林頂). The man had not been overseas recently and was unclear where he might have contracted the virus, Lin said. There have been five case of imported measles since the start of the year.
■SOCIETY
More ‘Tiger’ babies urged
Deputy Minister of the Interior Chien Tai-lang (簡太郎) has urged couples to ignore a belief that children born in the Year of Tiger are too wild, urging them to have babies after the nation’s low birth rate fell even further. The plea came as figures from the ministry showed that just 57,088 babies were born in the first four months of this year, down by nearly 5,000 from the same period last year. Observers have blamed the low birth rate on parents avoiding having children during the Year of the Tiger, one of the fiercest signs of the Chinese zodiac. Government figures showed that 271,450 babies were born in the last Year of the Tiger, in 1998, a fall of 54,550 from the previous year. The island’s birth rate stood at 8.29 per 1,000 people last year, according to official figures. That compares with a global average of more than 20 births per 1,000 people, UN figures show.
■ENVIRONMENT
Bus uses oxyhydrogen
The bus ride for university students at National Taitung University (NTTU) has become more environmentally friendly, as the vehicle has become the world’s first school bus equipped with a water-diesel hybrid system, university officials said yesterday. The bus was unveiled at a green technology science exhibition held by NTTU on Thursday. The bus runs between the university’s two campuses and is part of its efforts to create a greener future, College of Science and Engineering dean Liu Chiung-hsi (劉炯錫) said. Explaining how the oxyhydrogen hybrid fuel system works, Liu said it first generates an oxyhydrogen gas solution from the water, then introduces the gas into the vehicle’s engine, where it helps the fuel burn more efficiency. He said the system creates up to 20 percent savings in fuel costs and also lowers exhaust fumes by 20 percent.
■CRIME
Suspect’s wife, kids fine
The wife and three children of an alleged killer were released yesterday after being hospitalized on Tuesday when they were found on the verge of death in their Taoyuan County home. The hospital said the four left quietly and it had no information on their current whereabouts. The police believe 39-year-old chef Chang Jui-nan (張瑞男) murdered his parents before attempting to kill his wife and three children. Chang was found dead in his car on Wednesday in an apparent suicide. Police said Chang left a suicide note apologizing for his actions and asking his younger brother to make funeral arrangements for his family. The bodies of Chang’s parents were discovered in a tool shed at the family’s orchard in Chiayi County. Chang’s younger brother was quoted by police as saying that Chang called him in the early morning on May 11 and said he had murdered their parents. The brother immediately alerted police, who later found Chang’s wife and three children unconscious after inhaling carbon monoxide from burning coal.
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
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater