Many hepatitis B patients have stopped taking their medicine because of the sluggish economy, physicians said yesterday.
But doing so would push patients one step closer to liver cancer, said Chien Rong-nan (簡榮南), chief of the Division of Hepato-Gastroenterology at Keelung’s Chang Kung Memorial Hospital’s Department of Internal Medicine.
“Liver cancer kills people, but the bad economy seems to be killing people, too,” Chien told a press conference organized by the Liver Disease Prevention and Treatment Research Foundation (肝病防治學術基金會) and Taiwan Advancing Clinical Treatment of Hepatitis B Virus Association (B肝醫療策進會台灣分會).
The two organizations yesterday released the latest statistics about Taiwanese infected with hepatitis B.
Chien said that National Health Insurance only covered the first 18 months of hepatitis B medicine and patients continuing treatment needed to pay the rest themselves.
“The cost of the medicine can become a burden for these people. Since they may not have any obvious symptoms, many simply stop going to the doctor for their prescriptions,” Chien said.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
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Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
The Grand Hotel Taipei has rejected media reports claiming that the hotel had prevented CBS from broadcasting coverage of the Beijing summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on its premises. Media reports alleging that the hotel owner, dissatisfied with CBS’s coverage, prohibited the network from broadcasting political content on the hotel premises, are not true, the hotel said in a statement issued last night. The reports were “inconsistent with how the hotel actually handled the matter,” it said. The hotel said it received a refund request from a
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