The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it has expanded its monitoring of people possibly exposed to influenza A virus subtype H5N6 from 168 to 224 people, after the nation’s first case of H5N6 avian flu was confirmed this week, adding that resources for disease prevention have been prepared.
A dead goose in Hualien County’s Yuli Township (玉里) on Monday was confirmed to have the H5N6 virus, and the agency has been working with the Council of Agriculture to track down and monitor all personnel working within a 3km radius of where the goose was found, the agency said.
Human infection has not been detected in Taiwan before, but 16 cases of human infection have been reported in China since 2014, with a fatality rate of 69 percent.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Health examinations of 168 people from the farm, slaughterhouse and wild bird association have showed no symptoms, but the centers have expanded the examination to include another 56 people and will continue to monitor their conditions until Sunday, CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said.
The nation’s first case of avian influenza A virus subtype H7N9 infection this year was confirmed in a man who returned from China on Saturday last week.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) yesterday held a news conference with the CDC after his inauguration to announce that they would take strict preventive measures to fight avian influenza.
CDC Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩) said the centers have prepared treatments for at least 2.3 million people, more than 35 million disease prevention treatments — including N95 surgical masks — and have held a specialist meeting on how to enhance prevention measures.
The centers would also enhance avian flu prevention education for Taiwanese businesspeople in China, airline personnel, travel agency personnel and tourists, he said, adding that the agency would work closely with the council to monitor the health conditions of people who work with birds.
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:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
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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