Government-funded vaccination against influenza starts tomorrow and, as the eligibility is expended this year, an estimated one-quarter of Taipei residents will be eligible for the shots, the Taipei Department of Health said on Monday.
Division for Disease and Control and Prevention Director Chen Shao-ching (陳少卿) said the number of government-funded flu vaccines prepared for the capital has increased from approximately 310,000 shots in past flu seasons to about 720,000 shots this year, which means about one in four residents is eligible.
Statistics from the Centers for Diseases Control showed that among the 2,005 cases of serious influenza complications confirmed between July last year and June nationwide, 95.1 percent were not vaccinated and 97.1 percent of the 163 cases confirmed in the capital were not vaccinated, he said.
Moreover, among 13 deaths caused by serious influenza complications during that period in Taipei, eight were people older than 50 and none of them were vaccinated, Chen said, urging people older than 50 to get vaccinated against the flu.
The department said the peak of the flu season is usually from mid-December to February or March, and getting vaccinated is the best way to prevent infection.
According to the centers’ statistics, flu vaccines have an efficacy of about 70 to 90 percent and can reduce the risk of developing serious complications in older people by 50 to 60 percent, as well as reduce the risk of death by 80 percent.
Chen urged those eligible for the vaccine to make use of the more than 280 hospitals, clinics and specialized vaccine stations in the capital to receive protection from flu infections as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, clinical observations showed that the number of patients who showed positive results in rapid influenza diagnostic tests has increased by about 20 percent in the past two weeks, National Taiwan University Hospital pediatrician Huang Li-min (黃立民) said.
He said pneumonia triggered by the flu is the main cause of flu-related death, so high-risk groups, such as people with chronic disease, weak kidney function, or those who often drink alcohol or smoke, should be more careful.
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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