Newly appointed Department of Health Director-General Chen Chien-jen (
Chen sought understanding and collaboration from the lawmakers in his first appearance at the legislature since he assumed the top health post on Saturday.
Chen focused his speech on explaining the details of the Executive Yuan's NT$50 billion budget proposal for SARS prevention and costs incurred to local business, travel and tourism sectors badly hit by the virus.
Chen said as SARS is a new disease, unprecedented support from the scientific sector is needed to contain the epidemic.
Policies to prevent the spread of the disease and measures to treat patients need to be updated constantly, necessitating a larger and more flexible budget, he said.
The 52-year-old Chen, who is one of the country's top epidemiologists, told the legislators that the key to fighting SARS is to effectively contain it within hospitals because the virus is at its most virulent when patients have full-blown symptoms.
Noting that five medical personnel -- two doctors and three nurses -- are among the more than 40 people who have died as a result of SARS, Chen vowed to ensure health care workers on the front line of the battle against the epidemic are provided with the best possible protective gear.
Chen took over at the health department from Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲), who resigned last Friday to "take responsibility" for the outbreak among health personnel.
He was scheduled to be officially sworn in by President Chen Shui-bian (
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
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More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
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