Rights activists yesterday voiced their opposition to a proposal to add special markings on the health insurance cards of people who are HIV positive, as a measure to prevent infection during operations or organ transplants, arguing that this would not only violate patients’ right to privacy, but that it also would not serve the purpose it was intended to.
Following a scandal that broke last weekend in which National Taiwan University Hospital and National Cheng Kung University Hospital failed to identify an HIV-positive organ donor in advance and transplanted his organs into five HIV-negative people, some politicians — such as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators Yang Li-huan (楊麗環) and Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) — have proposed that the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bureau should add special marks on the NHI cards of people who are HIV positive to prevent similar incidents.
However, rights activists said that such a measure would not help and would violate HIV and AIDS patients’ privacy.
“There is no connection between safety in organ transplants and adding a special mark on the NHI cards of people who are HIV positive,” Persons with HIV/AIDS Rights Advocacy Association of Taiwan secretary-general Lin Yi-hui (林宜慧) told a news conference in Taipei.
“In fact, I think adding the mark may make the situation worse,” she said.
She said that the best way to prevent HIV infection during operations or organ transplants was to follow the standard operational procedures thoroughly, and to check whether a person has HIV at the time of the operation.
“Better training for medical personnel may be a better idea than marking the NHI cards of people who are HIV positive,” she said.
“Having no mark on the NHI card doesn’t mean the person doesn’t have HIV, because the majority of people never go for an HIV test, and being HIV negative at the time when they were tested doesn’t mean that people are not HIV positive at the time of their operations,” Lin said. “Hence, marking the NHI card doesn’t help solve the issue, rather, it may put medical personnel under greater threat.”
Taiwan Lourdes Association secretary-general Hsu Sen-chieh (徐森杰) said it was irresponsible to put the burden of HIV infection prevention on people who are HIV positive.
He added that having the proposed HIV marking on NHI cards may effect patients’ right to regular visits to a doctor.
“According to our studies, as many as 25 percent of patients who identified themselves as HIV positive to medical personnel have been refused medical services,” Hsu said. “So, if their NHI cards are marked, such people may just ‘forget’ to bring their NHI cards along when going to hospital.”
He added that besides better training programs for medical personnel, the government should deliver more accurate information to the general public about HIV/AIDS, and raise public awareness about the diseases.
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck Chiayi County at 4:37pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 36.3km southeast of Chiayi County Hall at a depth of 10.4km, CWA data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Chiayi County, Tainan and Kaohsiung on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Pingtung, Taitung, Hualien, Changhua, Nantou and Penghu counties, the data
RSS