Parents should take their infants to a doctor if the children have jaundice for more than 14 days and have chalky gray or pale yellow stool, the Taiwan Children Liver Foundation said.
The foundation cited a recent case in which a girl, born in Taipei’s Cardinal Tien Hospital in June, was found to have jaundice four days after birth, but her condition worsened after receiving phototherapy, and blood tests showed that her total bilirubin and direct bilirubin levels were high.
She was transferred to National Taiwan University Hospital for further examination and was diagnosed with biliary atresia — a life-threatening condition in infants in which the bile ducts inside or outside the liver do not have openings. It must be corrected by surgery.
“Prevalence of biliary atresia in Taiwan is probably the second-highest in the world,” Foundation chairperson Chang Mei-hwei (張美惠) said. “An average of about 1.5 to two per 10,000 newborns in Taiwan have biliary atresia.”
She said that the prevalence of the condition in newborns in Western nations is about 0.5 to 0.7 per 10,000 people, and about 0.8 to 0.9 per 10,000 people in Japan.
Jaundice is one of the symptoms of biliary atresia, Chang said, adding that parents should take their babies to a doctor if they see signs of jaundice.
About 30 to 40 infants are diagnosed with biliary atresia in Taiwan every year, and it is the most common cause of liver transplants in children or infant deaths caused by liver disease, she said, adding that early detection is important for treatment, but about 30 percent of cases are not discovered at an early stage.
The foundation said parents can use the infant stool color card in the Children’s Health Manual published by the Health Promotion Administration to check whether their infant’s stool color is normal.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
Foreign travelers entering Taiwan on a short layover via Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are receiving NT$600 gift vouchers from yesterday, the Tourism Administration said, adding that it hopes the incentive would boost tourism consumption at the airport. The program, which allows travelers holding non-Taiwan passports who enter the country during a layover of up to 24 hours to claim a voucher, aims to promote attractions at the airport, the agency said in a statement on Friday. To participate, travelers must sign up on the campaign Web site, the agency said. They can then present their passport and boarding pass for their connecting international
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
UNKNOWN TRAJECTORY: The storm could move in four possible directions, with the fourth option considered the most threatening to Taiwan, meteorologist Lin De-en said A soon-to-be-formed tropical storm east of the Philippines could begin affecting Taiwan on Wednesday next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. The storm, to be named Fung-wong (鳳凰), is forecast to approach Taiwan on Tuesday next week and could begin affecting the weather in Taiwan on Wednesday, CWA forecaster Huang En-hung (黃恩鴻) said, adding that its impact might be amplified by the combined effect with the northeast monsoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the system’s center was 2,800km southeast of Oluanbi (鵝鑾鼻). It was moving northwest at 18kph. Meteorologist Lin De-en (林得恩) on Facebook yesterday wrote that the would-be storm is surrounded by
RSS