The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said that 118 hospitals nationwide next month would start treating people with latent tuberculosis (TB) using a medication that can decrease the course of treatment from about nine months to about three months.
The CDC said that about 10 percent of people with latent tuberculosis have a lifetime risk of developing tuberculosis, especially within the first year after initial infection and when their immune system becomes weak, so having regular checkups and proper treatment is important.
An antibiotic called isoniazid is the most common treatment for latent and active tuberculosis and is taken daily for nine months. However, sometimes patients forget to take their medication or stop taking it before the course is finished, which can lead to drug resistance.
The CDC trialed using a combination of antibiotics — rifapentine and isoniazid taken weekly for three months — at 77 hospitals. As of June 30, 639 people had been given the medications and 33 people had completed the treatment.
It said the prescription rate of the new drug had reached 61 percent at the 77 hospitals, surpassing the rate of isoniazid, so it plans to provide the drug combination to 118 hospitals starting next month for an estimated 2,200 patients, which is expected to reduce active tuberculosis cases by 220 people each year.
Meanwhile, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Liu Ting-ping (劉定萍) said communicable diseases, such as Japanese encephalitis and scrub typhus, are both at the peaks of the epidemic curve.
Japanese encephalitis is more prevalent in central and southern Taiwan, as well as Hualien County. Scrub typhus is more prevalent in Hualien, Taitung and on the outlying islands.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
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