Responding to Taiwan's strong protests, the World Health Organization (WHO) has corrected the global avian influenza maps posted on its Web site by changing the color of Taiwan to indicate the nation's H5N1-free status, an official said yesterday.
"We welcome and recognize the WHO's prompt and positive response to our demand," Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Michel Lu said, "and we hope the organization would avoid a similar incident happening again."
He added that the WHO's correction was congruent with professionalism and the facts of the matter.
The WHO erroneously included Taiwan in a list of countries affected by the deadly H5N1 avian flu strain on four global and country maps posted on its official Web site on March 9.
As Taiwan has not recorded any H5N1 avian flu case in either animals or humans, the foreign affairs ministry swiftly lodged a formal complaint with the WHO headquarters in Geneva, demanding an immediate correction.
The organization responded by holding a press conference on March 10 to announce that Taiwan had not reported any bird-flu cases as of that date.
The WHO Secretariat said that it had classified the avian flu situation in terms of "nation" and that under its "one China" policy, Taiwan was included as an H5N1-affected area along with China -- which has recorded H5N1 bird flu cases in both animals and humans.
After intensive negotiations, two WHO officials publicly confirmed last Friday that Taiwan is free of H5N1 avian flu infections in poultry, wild birds and humans. But they remained noncommittal as to how to deal with its Web site maps.
In light of the potentially negative impact on Taiwan's economy, trade, tourism and international image, the nation's representative office in Geneva continued negotiations with WHO authorities over the weekend. Acting on Taiwan's push, the WHO Secretariat finally corrected its mistake yesterday.
The WHO replaced the color of Taiwan on its map of infected areas from red (meaning human contracted H5N1 virus had been detected) to white (none detected).
On the revised WHO global avian flu maps, Taiwan ranks among countries with no H5N1 cases in both animals and humans.
The foreign affairs ministry issued a statement yesterday evening expressing appreciation for the organization's efforts and the concern of the international community.
The Department of Health also thanked the WHO for quickly rectifying the information, adding that it hoped the organization would contact local health authorities for updated information on the disease.
"This indicates that our demand was reasonable," said Chang Wu-hsiu (
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