The hysteria surrounding letters contaminated with the deadly anthrax bacterium has spread to Taiwan's stock market.
Investors have been infected with anthrax fever, bidding up the shares yesterday of the nation's leading pharmaceutical producers on the hopes that increased demand for antibiotics will mean higher sales.
China Chemical & Pharmaceutical (中國化學製藥), the nation's second-largest pharmaceutical by market value, rose by NT$0.50, or 7 percent, to NT$7.65 yesterday as investors bet its anthrax antibiotics will boost profits.
"Our antibiotic ciprofloxacin is targeted to treat anthrax, and recent worries about bioterrorism are boosting interest in our products,'' Bloomberg news quoted spokesman Hsu Rong-chi as saying.
In the US, one man has already died from an anthrax-laced piece of mail. Four people in the US so far have tested positive for anthrax.
Anthrax is a deadly disease caused by a form of bacteria that forms spores which produce a deadly toxin. It begins with flu-like symptoms, then can lead to respiratory failure and brain damage.
Symptoms of the disease usually appear within seven days. The first symptoms of the inhaled form of anthrax start out like a common cold before becoming far more serious. The beginning of an anthrax skin infection resembles an insect bite, but develops into a skin ulcer within days.
All hospitals in Taiwan carry the necessary drugs to fight anthrax infections, said Lin Li-wen (
The drug used to fight anthrax -- ciprofloxacin -- or cipro for short, was developed by the German firm Bayer AG, and won approval from the US Food and Drug Administration in 1987.
Lin urged the public yesterday to pursue medical help from local hospitals or clinics if they believe they have been exposed to anthrax.
But she conceded that the treatment can readily be bought at many of Taiwan's drugstores along with other antibiotics such as penicillin, erythromycin and tetracycline.
According to the Department of Health, there has been no case of human anthrax infection during the past 30 years in Taiwan.
A number of pharmaceutical makers throughout the region have also seen their share prices jump since the beginning of the anthrax attacks in the US, including Japan's Meiji Seika Kaisha Ltd and South Korea's Chong Kun Dang Pharm and Korea United Pharm.
Taiwan's Standard Chem & Pharmaceutical Co (生達化學), which makes circulatory and respiratory system drugs, and Yung Hsing Pharmaceuticals Co (永信製藥) have also risen steadily.
The Taiwanese military is reportedly trained to handle four types of bacterial or viral attack: anthrax, smallpox, botulism and the bubonic plague.
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