The incidence of tuberculosis (TB) nationwide is steadily declining, but there were still 12,300 people who were carriers of the disease last year, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday at a press conference to raise public awareness of TB.
Compared with 2005, the incidence of active TB dropped 27 percent last year, with 53 cases per 100,000 people, CDC Director-General Chang Feng-yee (張峰義) said.
“Our goal is to reach 30 or 40 per 100,000 people, and this relies on both control by the health authority and public action,” he said.
Chiang Chen-yuan (江振源), director of the department of lung health at the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, said the control measures undertaken by the government were effective and that the National Health Insurance system had helped curb the spread and lower the rate of TB infection in the nation.
“It has ensured people’s rights to receive appropriate and timely medical treatment,” Chiang said.
“But we can further set our goal at zero incidence,” he said.
“The key is to recognize the early symptoms of TB for possible early treatment and maintain a healthy immune system as a preventive measure, because it is possible to have latent TB infection without being sick if the body is able to fight the bacteria to stop the infection from growing. Elderly people and people with chronic diseases such as diabetes are susceptible to the infection for this reason,” he added.
The CDC is promoting a seven-point scale for tuberculosis self-checks, with coughing up phlegm and coughing for two consecutive weeks each worth two points, while chest pain, loss of appetite and weight loss each counted as one point.
When a person has accumulated more than five points according to the chart, they may be at risk of having infectious TB and should visit a doctor immediately, the CDC said.
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:
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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