Doctors yesterday urged elderly people to get a pneumococcal vaccine along with the seasonal flu vaccine for better protection.
“Getting pneumonia is much easier than getting a Golden Bell Award,” entertainer Hu Gua (胡瓜), who on Saturday won the television award for best variety show host, told a news conference in Taipei to raise public awareness of pneumonia and encourage vaccination.
Hu Gua said he quit smoking and started exercising regularly after being hospitalized twice for pneumonia, with symptoms including high fever and difficulty breathing.
He urged people above 65 years old to get vaccinated against pneumonia.
Pneumonia is a common serious complication of seasonal flu, and it was the third-leading cause of death in Taiwan last year and the year before, said Huang Yi-wen (黃伊文), a physician at the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Changhua Hospital and a member of the Taiwan Society of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine.
The number of deaths from pneumonia has doubled from 10 years ago, Huang said.
As older people tend to have more difficulty swallowing, reduced mucociliary clearance, weaker immune systems and other chronic diseases, a flu infection can more easily lead to serious complications, including pneumonia, he added.
Doctors face three major challenges when treating pneumonia: identifying the pathogenic source of the infection; using higher concentrations of antibiotics to reach deep into the lungs; and dealing with Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria that have developed a resistance to multiple classes of antibiotics, Huang said.
Infectious Disease Society of Taiwan chairman Huang Li-min (黃立民), a pediatrician at National Taiwan University Hospital, said that getting vaccinated is still the best way to prevent flu and pneumonia.
A study has suggested that getting a pneumococcal vaccine along with a seasonal flu vaccine can reduce the risk of death from pneumonia by 26 percent, he said.
The government-funded flu vaccination program is to begin on Monday next week, the doctors said, urging people who are worried about their health condition to consult a doctor on whether they should get vaccinated.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday condemned Chinese and Russian authorities for escalating regional tensions, citing Chinese warplanes crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line and joint China-Russia military activities breaching South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) over the past two days. A total of 30 Chinese warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Thursday and Friday, entering Taiwan’s northern and southwestern airspace in coordination with 15 naval vessels and three high-altitude balloons, the MAC said in a statement. The Chinese military also carried out another “joint combat readiness patrol” targeting Taiwan on Thursday evening, the MAC said. On
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NO RIGHT: After 38 years of martial law under the former KMT government, the KMT is the least qualified to accuse others of harboring such intentions, DPP officials said The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of creating a stir on social media by implying that the government supports martial law, adding that the KMT is the least qualified to criticize others after decades of martial law in Taiwan under the former KMT regime. After South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol late on Tuesday night declared martial law (which was rescinded six hours later), the DPP caucus issued a statement on Thread saying that Taiwan’s legislature was facing a situation similar to that in South Korea, which had prompted Yoon to declare martial law. “The South
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