China has informed Taiwan’s Department of Health that it is in the process of sending a strain of the H7N9 bird flu virus to Taiwan, a senior Taiwanese health official said yesterday.
“We have received information from Chinese health authorities that they began the virus delivery procedures this afternoon,” Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩) said. “We will make an announcement when the shipment arrives.”
“The wild strain will be used to check whether test reagents now in use in Taiwan are effective and whether Tamiflu is effective against H7N9 bird flu,” he added.
Photo: Huang Shu-lee, Taipei Times
The CDC would reproduce the virus and study its biological features, he said.
As to whether the strain from China would be cultured for production of an H7N9 vaccine, Chou said that would be considered at a later point.
He added the CDC has been in close contact with the US, which has promised to make H7N9 cultures available to Taiwan for vaccine production once the US succeeds in developing the cultures.
“There has been no progress so far in this regard,” he added.
According to China’s latest statistics, the number of confirmed H7N9 cases in the country had risen to 83, with 17 deaths, as of Thursday morning.
Citing a Chinese health official, the WHO said on Wednesday that about 40 percent of people who have tested positive for the H7N9 virus in China appear to have had no contact with poultry.
“This is one of the puzzles still [to] be solved and therefore argues for a wide investigation net,” WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl was quoted as saying in a Reuters report.
Feng Zijian (馮子健), director of the health emergency center at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Wednesday that China is investigating the possibility of human-to-human transmission of the H7N9 virus and is examining “family clusters” of people infected with the virus.
One of the families that China is studying is made up of two brothers and their father, who died of the virus, Feng said.
However, he added that the family cluster case still does not change Chinese health authorities’ understanding of the characteristics of the disease in general — that it is transmitted from birds to people and there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
A Taiwanese man apologized on Friday after saying in a social media post that he worked with Australia to provide scouting reports on Taiwan’s team, enabling Australia’s victory in this year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC), saying it was a joke and that he did not hold any position with foreign teams or Taiwan’s sports training center. Chen Po-hao (陳柏豪) drew the rage of many Taiwan baseball fans when he posted online on Thursday night, claiming credit for Australia’s 3-0 win over Taiwan in the opening game for Pool C, saying he worked as a physical therapist with the national team and
RSS