Department of Health Minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) yesterday said he had nothing to be ashamed of in the handling of a suspected case of mad cow disease earlier this year, as there had yet to be a single confirmed case of the disease in Taiwan.
Lawmakers on the Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee accused Yaung of failing to promptly make public information concerning the death of a 36-year-old Taiwanese man in May, ostensibly from mad cow disease.
Earlier this month, reports said the victim, who lived in the UK from 1978 until 1986, had died in May from what appeared to be mad cow disease.
In 2008, the victim began showing symptoms resembling those associated with Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD), including memory loss and hypersomnia. The case was reported as a suspected CJD case in March last year, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said.
As the man’s family refused to provide tissue samples for testing or to give permission for an autopsy, pathologists were in no position to confirm the cause of death. However, based on his symptoms and his MRI and EEG records, a medical team determined it was “extremely likely” to be CJD.
The department came under heavy criticism after it was discovered that health authorities only began discussing the case after it was exposed by media.
Yaung and other health officials deny any wrongdoing over the matter.
The CDC said it had yet to confirm that the man had died of mad cow disease, as health authorities were unable to obtain agreement from the victim’s family for an autopsy. It said it would call a meeting of experts on the subject on Saturday to assess the situation.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Chiech-ju (陳節如) said at the meeting that Yaung should step down over the incident, as well as his failure to achieve consensus on a proposed second-generational health plan.
“I will not step down over this [incident],” Yaung said, adding that those were separate issues.
He would only step down, if necessary, over the National Health Insurance issue, he said.
A trade agreement on US beef imports signed in October last year caused a stir among health professionals and consumer groups, who said at the time that Taiwan had no facilities to deal with a possible outbreak of mad cow disease.
The legislature in January barred US ground beef, beef offal and other beef parts such as skulls, eyes and intestines, from entering the market, claiming it was a preventive measure against the disease.
The US says it has been scientifically proven that its beef is safe for consumption.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS