Sat, Sep 20, 2014 page4

• Taiwan News Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  HEALTH

  Taipei sprayed for insects

  Two districts in Taipei sprayed pesticides yesterday after the city confirmed its first case of dengue fever for the year the previous day, environmental officials said. A man who lives in Shilin District (士林) and studies in Xinyi District (信義) developed dengue fever symptoms, including fever and joint pain, on Friday last week after taking a school trip in northern Taiwan from Sept. 5 to Sept. 7. While the Taipei City Government Department of Health declined to reveal where the trip went, it said the student could have been infected in Taipei. As a result, the city’s Department of Environmental Protection sprayed pesticide in Shilin and Xinyi districts to prevent the virus from spreading. According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the nation recorded 2,235 cases of dengue fever this year as of Thursday, with 2,083 of them being indigenous.

  AVIATION

  Airport expansion outlined

  An upcoming expansion project of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport will increase the airport’s passenger capacity by 5 million people per year, Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) said on Thursday during the Trinity Forum, a leading global airport commercial revenue conference being held in Taipei. The event was organized by Airports Council International (ACI), ACI Asia-Pacific and The Moodie Report. The project to enlarge the airport’s Terminal 2 is set to begin by the end of this year and is expected to be completed in 18 months, Yeh said. Last year, the airport received more than 30 million passengers, with an additional 1.5 million passengers expected this year, exceeding its design capacity, Yeh said. To ease congestion, the government is building a third terminal, which would increase annual capacity to 45 million people, he said. The design for the third terminal will start next year, with construction expected to be completed by 2020, the minister added.

  HEALTH

  Doctors link stroke to diet

  A nine-year-old boy experienced a stroke recently due to his diet consisting largely of fast food, such as fried chicken and French fries, a doctor said. Huang Bing-wen (黃炳文), a doctor at Show Chwan Memorial Hospital in Changhua County, said the boy, who is 1.3m tall and weighs 31kg, comes from a family that does not have a history of strokes. His father told the physician that the boy leads a sedentary lifestyle, spending most of his time playing computer games and rarely exercising. The boy recently complained of nausea and dizziness. His father took him to see a doctor after he bumped into a bathroom basin. The doctor found that an artery in the boy’s brain was blocked by a clot and prescribed anti-clot drugs.

  DEVELOPMENT

  Nation ranked 21st

  The nation ranked 21st among 188 countries in terms of how well its people are developing, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said. The agency used the methodology of the Huang Development Index compiled by the UN, which measures life expectancy, education and income to rank countries. The index was published by the UN Development Program, but the government collected the nation’s statistics and returned a score of 0.882. A score close to 1 is better, whereas a ranking closer to zero is not ideal. Norway was at the top of the list, with a score of 0.944, followed by Australia at 0.933 and Switzerland at 0.917.
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