Test results have cleared three suspected cases of H7N9 avian influenza infection, as 10 new suspected cases were reported, the Central Epidemic Command Center said yesterday.
The announcement came after the center held a third meeting about H7N9, at which a development and production plan for a H7N9 vaccine was discussed.
Of the 10 suspected cases of H7N9 reported this week, nine were reported by hospitals and one was detected at an airport, the command center said.
“Three of the 10 were ruled not to be H7N9 infections, with two of them confirmed to be H1N1 virus infections. The rest are pending results,” Centers for Disease Control official Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said.
Two experts sent to China on Saturday last week have confirmed that there is no sign of sustained human-to-human transmission of the H7N9 bird flu so far, Chuang said.
Deputy Department of Health Minister Lin Tzou-yien (林奏延) said production of an H7N9 vaccine could be undertaken in one of two ways: either by acquiring the wild-type H7N9 virus strain from China for vaccine development or by receiving a developed vaccine strain from the WHO or the US’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“With an acquired virus strain [from China] we would be able to make a vaccine seed strain using reverse genetics, which takes about four to five weeks. The safety test takes another four to six weeks before a vaccine production strain can be provided to vaccine manufacturers. Further clinical studies would be required before market authorization could be obtained,” Lin said.
“If we can receive a vaccine production strain from the WHO or the US, things will be easier, because we can directly provide the strain to the manufacturers,” Lin said.
When asked about the possibility of a H7N9 vaccine being produced through cross-strait cooperation, as President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has said he would like to see, Lin said speed was the overriding factor.
“It would be nice to cooperate on other kinds of vaccines, but with H7N9, it seems that it would be faster to have our local companies undertake the production,” Lin said.
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
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
SECURITY RISK: A university student sent a general alarm signal to THSRC’s control center on April 5, causing four operating trains to temporarily halt services The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday pledged to submit a report on ways to harden the communication security of railway systems after a university student hacked into Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp’s (THSRC) radio communications system and disrupted operations of four high-speed rail trains last month. Investigation by the police and prosecutors found that the university student and radio enthusiast, surnamed Lin (林), first used a software-defined radio (SDR) filter to analyze THSRC signals, downloaded the data to a computer, cracked the parameters and then programmed the codes into his radio devices. Lin then sent a general alarm signal to
RSS