■Health
Dengue cases rise to 12
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday that the number of recorded indigenous dengue fever cases has risen to 12, mostly in Kaohsiung City. The Department of Health warned the public to take precautions against dengue fever as the disease is entering its peak season. CDC Deputy Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩) said that among the 12 cases, 11 were reported in Gushan District (鼓山), while the most recent case was in Kaohsiung County’s Fongshan City (鳳山). The latest patient is a 12-year-old boy who started displaying symptoms on July 12. His illness was confirmed as the 12th indigenous dengue fever case on Tuesday. Because no vaccine exists for the disease, the CDC said the most effective measure is to eliminate potential mosquito breeding grounds by cleaning up containers of still water.
■Agriculture
Pox inoculation nears end
The Council of Agriculture (COA) announced yesterday that a nationwide inoculation against goat pox virus (GPV) is nearly complete, with 90 percent of all goats nationwide vaccinated as of Wednesday. The next step is to wait and see whether the outbreak slows, officials from the COA’s Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine said. The inoculation began late last month amid fears of a massive GPV outbreak. As of June 22, 14,000 goats out of about 220,000 in the country had been culled after it was found they were infected with the virus. There are 2,500 goat farms in Taiwan, 140 of which are feared to have been infected.
■Politics
Taiwan to host forum
Taiwan is to hold the annual assembly of the World League for Freedom and Democracy next year as part of celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of the Republic of China (ROC), Vice Legislative Speaker Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) said yesterday. Tseng, who doubles as chairman of the ROC chapter of the league, said the chapter will showcase Taiwan’s democracy and freedom by hosting a well organized event. The assembly will be held at the Grand Hotel in Taipei while members of the league will all be invited to participate in the event, he said. The league is an international anti-communist organization. It was formerly known as the World Anti-Communist League, with the ROC being one of the organization’s founding members.
■Transportation
Tzuchiang train still running
The Super Tzuchiang Express will continue operating until the end of October, the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) said. The nation’s largest railway system launched the special express service last year in an attempt to salvage its long-distance service, which was facing strong competition from the high speed rail service. The Super Tzuchiang Express service is only offered to those traveling from Keelung to Changhua and from Miaoli to Kaohsiung. A one-way ticket for either one of the sections costs NT$299 (US$9.31). Those traveling in a group of four only need to pay for three tickets, although the TRA said the special offer is scheduled to expire at the end of this month. Since the Super Tzuchiang Express service has proven to be popular, the TRA said it has therefore decided to extend the service until Oct. 31. The TRA also announced that it will resume the special express train service along the east coast on Saturday. Tickets from Taipei to Yilan are NT$100 one-way, as are tickets from Yilan to Hualien.
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
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
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