The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday it would provide free 13-Valent Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccines (PCV13) from Jan. 1 to disadvantaged children under the age of five to help prevent the spread of pneumonia and meningitis.
The vaccine can build up strong immunity to the pneumococcal serotype 19A strain, which is a major threat to children, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Shih Wen-yih (施文儀) said.
PCV13 costs about NT$3,200 per dose, Shih said.
Children should have their first injection when they are between two months and six months old, their second and third shots under the age of two and a final dose between the ages of two and five, he said.
Taiwan recorded 737 cases last year. Four children, from a total of 224 cases in which the patients were under the age of five, died of the disease.
Disadvantaged children born after Jan. 1, 2007, will be eligible for one free shot of PCV13 even if they have already been vaccinated with earlier strains.
The CDC began sponsoring the vaccinations for 25,000 children from poor families and remote areas in 2009.
New Taipei City (新北市), Yilan County and Kinmen County provide free vaccinations for children aged between two and five, while Hsinchu County provides them for children aged between two and three, and Taipei City provides one vaccination to disabled children aged between two and five.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
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