The Department of Health yesterday protested against the WHO referring to the country as "Taiwan (China)" on its list of reported cases of atypical pneumonia.
The WHO included Taiwan for the first time in its third update, released on Tuesday, on worldwide cases of what it is calling severe acute respiratory disease (SARS).
Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲), director-general of the Department of Health, yesterday said that the organization should correct the nation's name in the statement.
"We've sent a letter to the WHO, requesting it to correct the name from `Taiwan (China)' to `Taiwan,'" Twu said.
Twu spoke after the weekly closed-door Cabinet affairs meeting yesterday morning in which he briefed Premier Yu Shyi-kun on the global outbreak, which has killed 10 people and left hundreds ill.
According to Twu, the WHO had ignored the department's report of the three local suspected cases of SARS until yesterday, when the number of suspected cases rose to four.
"We thought it was not fair for the WHO to keep ignoring our requests for medical assistance and unfair to the 23 million Taiwanese people to be excluded from the international health community," Twu said.
So far the WHO has offered Taiwan no direct assistance, although it asked officials from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to visit the country.
Two officials, based in Bangkok, arrived on Sunday to join the investigation of the cause of the infections.
Twu yesterday also called on the families of China-based Taiwanese businesspeople to update their loved ones on developments in identifying the disease, as information has been restricted there.
"Our advice to Taiwanese bus-inesspeople based in China who have been infected with the disease is to seek local medial treatment instead of rushing home to seek help," Twu said.
The health department also announced yesterday that it had identified the kind of virus that had sickened the three people here as paramyxovirus, the same virus identified in SARS patients in Hong Kong, Singapore and Germany.
"The discovery marks a breakthrough in identifying the pathogen of the illness," said Chen Tsai-chin (陳再晉), director of the department's Center for Disease Control.
Chen, however, said that it would take further serum studies to determine the exact agent because the paramyxoviridae family comprises many virus strains.
Scientists around the world have been trying to identify the deadly disease.
Doctors in Germany said that they were treating three people with the illness, including a 32-year-old doctor from Singapore and his pregnant wife. The physician had treated some of the first pneumonia cases in the city state.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-Wong tomorrow, which it said would possibly make landfall near central Taiwan. As of 2am yesterday, Fung-Wong was about 1,760km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving west-northwest at 26kph. It is forecast to reach Luzon in the northern Philippines by tomorrow, the CWA said. After entering the South China Sea, Typhoon Fung-Wong is likely to turn northward toward Taiwan, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said, adding that it would likely make landfall near central Taiwan. The CWA expects to issue a land
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it is expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong this afternoon and a land warning tomorrow. As of 1pm, the storm was about 1,070km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, and was moving west-northwest at 28 to 32kph, according to CWA data. The storm had a radius of 250km, with maximum sustained winds of 173kph and gusts reaching 209kph, the CWA added. The storm is forecast to pass near Luzon in the Philippines before entering the South China Sea and potentially turning northward toward Taiwan, the CWA said. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said
PREPARATION: Ferry lines and flights were canceled ahead of only the second storm to hit the nation in November, while many areas canceled classes and work Authorities yesterday evacuated more than 3,000 people ahead of approaching Tropical Storm Fung-wong, which is expected to make landfall between Kaohsiung and Pingtung County this evening. Fung-wong was yesterday morning downgraded from a typhoon to a tropical storm as it approached the nation’s southwest coast, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, as it issued a land alert for the storm. The alert applies to residents in Tainan, Kaohsiung, Pingtung and Taitung counties, and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春). As of press time last night, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Yilan, Miaoli, Changhua, Yunlin, Pingtung and Penghu counties, as well as Chiayi city and county had
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday issued a sea alert for Typhoon Fung-wong (鳳凰) as it threatened vessels operating in waters off the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島), the Bashi Channel and south of the Taiwan Strait. A land alert is expected to be announced some time between late last night and early this morning, the CWA said. As of press time last night, Taoyuan, as well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties had declared today a typhoon day, canceling work and classes. Except for a few select districts in Taipei and New Taipei City, all other areas and city
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