Twenty-three years on, Jackie Shao (邵于玲) still remembers the pang of grief when she lost her father to acute hepatitis B.
She also remembers an eight-year-old girl's confusion when she was diagnosed with the same disease three months after her father's death.
As Shao came of age, it dawned on her that she would carry the virus for the rest of her life.
"Now it doesn't bother me too much," Shao said in a calm tone.
As she is busy teaching at the Taipei Physical Education College, the dull pain captures her only when she takes a stroll down memory lane.
"I feel good to be alive," she said, "And I know I am lucky to survive."
Shao is lucky indeed, given the high prevalence and mortality rate of hepatitis B in Taiwan in the 1980s. Twenty years ago, one in six Taiwanese was born with the hepatitis B virus (HBV). Three people a day died of liver cancer and cirrhosis incurred by hepatitis B.
Hepatitis B was Taiwan's national disease. Taiwanese referred to it as one's "destiny," since HBV was passed from mother to baby, from generation to generation. Even now, vertical transmission still accounts for 40 to 50 percent of total infections, according to statistics from the Center for Disease Control.
As the specter of hepatitis B loomed over the entire country in the 1980s, the government was motivated to fight back. In 1984, it took the pioneering step of vaccinating every newborn. Taiwan became the first nation to launch a comprehensive vaccination program against hepatitis B.
Children born since 1984 have been immunized from HBV, which protects them for at least 15 years. The immunization policy has significantly reduced the prevalence of the disease in the past two decades, from 17 percent to 1.7 percent of the population.
"We fought the battle and we won the battle," Department of Health Director-General Chen Chien-jen (
"We expect the disease to disappear by 2030," Chen said.
While the rate of new hepatitis B cases is low, health experts have called on the government and academics to tackle emerging health challenges.
Because the disease is trans-mitted via exposure to bodily fluids containing the virus, experts are worried that it may resurface if young people engage in unprotected sex or re-use contaminated needles, as their antibody levels may decline as they grow older.
In addition, not everyone who is vaccinated develops the necessary antibodies.
"About 10 to 15 percent of people do not respond to the current vaccine," said Chang Mei-hwei (
"The future challenge lies in our ability to develop more effective vaccines with longer protection," Chang said.
"Hepatitis B will never be extinct, but we can work to lower the prevalence rate, to 0.1 percent, and to 0.01 percent. It is a never-ending task," she said.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
RSS