HEALTH
MERS warning reiterated
Travelers to the Middle East should be on the alert as the number of reported cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) has been escalating in that region, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. The disease is concentrated mainly in the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh, where about 100 cases had been reported as of late last month, the CDC said. The risk of contracting MERS might increase due to a surge of visitors for hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca that is to take place from Sept. 20 to Sept. 25, attracting more than 3 million pilgrims from around the world, the CDC said. People visiting Saudi Arabia and other MERS hotspots, including the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Iran, Oman and Qatar, should exercise caution, the CDC said. According to the WHO, 1,461 confirmed cases of MERS, including 514 deaths, were reported in 26 nations from September 2012 to Monday.
HEALTH
Tainan dengue cases on rise
The Tainan City Government on Tuesday reported more than 2,000 dengue fever cases. With 178 new cases, Tainan has now reached a total of 2,152 cases since the beginning of summer. Tainan’s Northern District (北區) reported the most dengue fever cases in the region with 1,032. Dengue fever has claimed the lives of four people so far this year — all in Tainan. All four were elderly people over the age of 70, who suffered from other chronic illnesses, the city government said. The CDC on Tuesday said in a weekly report that most people in Tainan had been infected in the region, but added that there have been some “imported infections,” with patients contracting the disease on visits to Southeast Asian nations.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai
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