Children of drug addicts are the hidden victims of drug abuse, with the mortality rate of children aged six and under whose parents are addicted to opioids being 2.3 times higher than other children their age, a National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) study showed.
A research team found that children of people with opioid use disorders have a higher mortality rate before the age of six.
The mortality rate of children with mothers who have an opioid use disorder is 3.9 times higher than those whose mothers do not have a drug habit, the study found, while children of drug addicts are about 4.2 times more likely to die an unnatural death.
The study examined data from 3,210 children born to parents with opioid addictions between 2004 and 2009 — with about one-quarter having been born after the mother enrolled in methadone treatment — and linked it with data from the National Health Insurance database and death registrations, said Chen Chuan-yu (陳娟瑜), a researcher at the institutes’ Center for Neuropsychiatric Research who took part in the study.
“Pregnant women who use heroin have a two to fourfold higher risk of premature birth, as well as increased risks of weight loss and stillbirth,” Chen said.
Increased mortality might also have stemmed from the mother neglecting the child, having developed other diseases from drug use that affected the fetus, or her opioid use contaminating her breastmilk, Chen said.
Children with a mother who uses heroin tend to miss out on prenatal checkups, as the mother is afraid that the police will discover her addiction, and seldom receive proper care, as the mother often ends up in prison and her child being entrusted to the care of others, Taiwan Care Management Association chairperson Chang Shu-hui (張淑慧) said.
Such children are typically not in a safe environment, as child abuse easily occurs when the child is exposed to those on drugs or entrusted to other people, and often lack resources, as their mothers spend a lot of money on drugs or are imprisoned, Chang said.
Some mothers who are imprisoned for illegal drug use take their children to prison with them, but the abnormal life in jail and a lack of cultural stimulation can cause the children to suffer developmental delays, she said.
The researchers said the government should help drug-addicted women of child-bearing age, with prenatal and postnatal checkups.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS