Center for Disease Control (CDC) Director Su Ih-jen (
The two-day conference on SARS will open in the Sunway Lagoon Resort Hotel, close to the nation's capital, Kuala Lumpur.
A wide range of SARS-related issues will be discussed in the conference, which will include open and closed-door sessions. The WHO has invited public health practitioners and SARS experts.
"The WHO invited me about a week ago," Su said.
He declined to elaborate on what he planned to present at the conference or reveal which session he was invited to attend.
The government suffered a serious blow to its efforts to get Taiwan off the organization's travel advisory list yesterday.
A suspected SARS outbreak in Taipei Municipal Yang Ming Hospital shattered the country's dwindling SARS caseload and might derail Taiwwan's efforts to be cleared from the WHO's travel recommendations table.
However, Premier Yu Shyi-kun said he remained hopeful that the nation will be removed from the list despite the new outbreak.
Meanwhile, the WHO said yesterday it has also invited three other Taiwanese experts to attend the conference but did not give the names of the experts.
Su said the WHO has yet to send formal invitations to him and the other three experts.
An additional 400 places will be provided for those interested in attending the meeting. The Department of Health (DOH) said a number of medical experts in Taiwan have registered to participate in the conference.
In one session entitled "National Response," five countries, Vietnam, China, Singapore, Canada and the US, and one region, Hong Kong, will each give a 15-minute presentation highlighting lessons learned from the epidemic.
Taiwan was absent on the list of countries scheduled to present at the "National Response" session.
Peter Chang (
Department spokeswoman Chi Hsueh-yun (
Chen, a leading epidemiologist, once joined a WHO-related academic meeting in Geneva as a scholar shortly before the World Health Assembly (WHA), which lasted from May 19 to May 28.
However, the WHA turned its back on Taiwan's allies request to hear Chen's presentation on Taiwan's SARS development in a SARS technical briefing on May 20, three days after Chen was appointed as DOH director-general.
It is unlikely the four invited Taiwanese experts will be spurned like Chen, Chang said.
"In the WHA technical briefing, we actually got no signs the WHO would allow Chen to report on Taiwan's SARS development," Chang said.
Although the WHO has reaffirmed there should be no big problems allowing the Taiwanese experts to report in the conference, many factors needed to be addressed to smooth the path for the experts to carry out their Malaysian trip.
Whether the WHO will directly send its formal invitation to Taiwan or through China, how the organization will call the experts on its invitation cards and how the experts will be seated in the conference are all issues yet to be addressed, Chang said.
Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr arrived in Taiwan last night to kick off his first visit to the country since beginning his second term earlier this year. After arriving at Taoyuan International Airport at around 6:30 pm, Whipps and his delegation were welcomed by Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍). Speaking to gathered media, the Palauan leader said he was excited and honored to be back in Taiwan on his first state visit to Taiwan since he was sworn in this January. Among those traveling with Whipps is Minister of State Gustav N. Aitaro, Public Infrastructure
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